Dera Halwana (Karnal), October 19
A mysterious disease, with symptoms of high fever and nausea, has claimed seven lives in this dusty village and left 25 others seriously ill.

Even as the district administration has stepped up efforts to prevent spread of the disease, the situation continues to be critical. This is for the third consecutive year that the village, inhabited mostly by nomadic tribes, has been gripped by the disease which is yet to be identified by the Health Department.

After conducting blood tests on the ailing persons, the district Health Department has ruled out the possibility of malaria or dengue. The victims had been complaining of high fever and some even showed symptoms of nausea.

The absence of a primary health centre in the village is adding to the villagers’ misery even though the Health Department has set up a temporary dispensary in the village to provide immediate medicare to the patients. Besides, ambulances and other vehicles have also been deputed to take seriously ill patients to the Civil Hospital .

Health Department teams have been collecting samples of blood and water from the village and distributing chlorine tablets among the residents.

Civil surgeon Shiv Kamar said the department had collected 50 blood samples and made 300 slides that had been sent to labs. He said all necessary steps were being taken to contain the disease.

The mysterious disease claimed 12 lives in 2008, 22 in 2009 and 18 in 2010.

Village sarpanch Gulab Singh said there was no proper drainage of water nor any provision for safe drinking water in the village as a result of which people lost lives to mysterious diseases year after year. Repeated pleas for better sanitation in the village had fallen on deaf ears, forcing the villagers to live in unhygienic conditions.

Fatehabad, October 19
Despite a ban, farmers have been burning paddy straw on their fields with impunity after harvesting their crops.

Smoke emanating from the burning paddy fields is leading to environment pollution. Thick dark clouds of smoke can be seen in the clear blue sky pointing towards the gravity of situation.

Stubble burning is not only injurious to human health but the process is also harmful for farmers as several friendly pests that save crops from harmful pests, are burnt in the fire. The heat generated by the fire also diminishes the fertility of the soil by burning micronutrients.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court, in a civil writ petition (2006), Captain Sarbjeet Singh verses State of Punjab and others, regarding non-burning of wheat stubble, paddy straw and dry fallen leaves, had directed the state government to take immediate measures to stop burning of paddy stubble.

After the measures taken by the authorities, the problem had mitigated if not ended completely during the wheat-harvesting season. With the process of harvesting of paddy in progress in the state, stubble-burning menace has started again.

Vijay Singh Dahiya, DC, today urged farmers to desist from burning their stubble after harvesting of paddy. He advised farmers to mix the residues of stubble with the soil, as it would increase its productivity.

Panipat, October 19
Two persons were killed while 17 were seriously injured as their jeep rammed into a stationary truck near a petrol station here today.

According to the police, the jeep was on its way from Gohana to Panipat . According to the police, the driver of the jeep lost control over the vehicle which resulted in the accident. The driver of the jeep, Om Prakash of Noorwala village, died on the spot while the other victim had not yet been identified.

The injured persons were rushed to the Civil Hospital while the bodies were shifted to the mortuary for a postmortem examination.

Chandigarh, October 19
The state government has issued a clarification regarding fixation of entry level pay for direct recruits and employees promoted on or after January 1, 2006.

It has clarified that if the mode of recruitment is promotion, the pay of incumbent shall be fixed as per rule 13 of the Haryana Civil Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2008, and if the mode of recruitment is direct appointment, the pay of the incumbent shall be fixed as per part-A of the Finance Department’s orders dated December 16, 2010.

It has also been clarified that entry level pay of the posts whose pay structure has been further modified after January 1, 2006, and not included in part-A of the said orders, their entry level pay shall be determined by multiplying the minimum of pre-revised pay scale corresponding to the pre-revised grade pay by a factor of 1.86 and rounding off the resultant figure to the next multiple of 10 plus modified grade pay.

Chandigarh, October 19
Refusing to take on record the affidavit filed on behalf of Haryana Speaker in the case involving the defection of five MLAs, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed him to file a fresh affidavit.

As the case came up for hearing, the special Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Gurdev Singh asked the Speaker to file the affidavit by November 1.

The Bench on the previous date of hearing had asked counsel for the Speaker and petitioner Kuldeep Bishnoi to furnish the status reports.

Appearing on Bishnoi’s behalf, former MP Satya Pal Jain said despite assurance of hearing the matter at least four times a month, it was heard for only seven days. During the hearing, irrelevant queries were posed.

Jain also objected to the affidavit filed on behalf of the Speaker by Vidhan Sabha Additional Secretary Kuldip Singh.

Jain was of the view that the affidavit could not have been filed by anyone else. Quoting the example of the past, he said earlier also the Speaker has been filing the affidavits.

Returning the affidavit, the Bench fixed November 1 as the next date of hearing and asked the Speaker to file the affidavit by then.

The “defecting” HJC MLAs -Satpal Sangwan, Vinod Bhyana, Narender Singh, Zileram and Dharam Singh - had joined Congress in November 2009.

Chandigarh, October 19
The state government has decided to grant two additional increments along with dearness allowance (DA) to the State or National Awardee teachers with effect from September 5, 2008, and also to those who have been awarded State or National Award prior to September 5, 2008, and were in service on September 5, 2008.

It will be subject to condition that the benefit would be given prospectively and no arrears will be paid.

Gurgaon, October 19
Life Technologies, a global biotechnology company operating in India as Invitrogen BioServices India Pvt Ltd, presented its next-generation sequencing product “ Ion Torrent Personal Genome Machine (PGM) “ to its customers in India at an innovation update forum here today.

“Most sequencing technologies primarily address the needs of researchers in the high-end laboratories, which limit the widespread accessibility of DNA-sequencing technologies. Ion PGM improves the existing decoding equipment by replacing the complex optical modules with a simple semiconductor chip. The result is a sequencing system that is simpler, faster, less expensive and more scalable than other sequencing technologies in current market,” asserted Devashish Ohri, MD, Life Technologies, South Asia.

He pointed out that the semiconductor-based PGM had enabled scientists to discover within days a hybrid bacterium that caused the E coli outbreak in Germany and other European countries in June, 2011 . It was also used to sequence the recent Klebsiella bug in the Netherlands that caused 20 deaths.

“Life Technologies” PGM to me looks like a very exciting and viable technology, where you can generate gigabytes of sequencing in one go”, said Prof NK Mehra, Head of the Department of Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics at the AIIMS, New Delhi. “I believe that it would really be a wonderful tool to understand genomic diversity of the pathogen. So from that point of view, I am sure it will be of great interest to researchers who are very keen to understand the immunogenic components of an organism.”

Chandigarh, October 19
HJC president and newly elected MP from Hisar Kuldeep Bishnoi has described the allegation leveled by the INLD that he won the recent byelection as a result of his tie-up with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as “a figment of imagination”.

INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala had alleged here yesterday that Bishnoi had met Hooda in Jindal House and even had telephonic talks with the Chief Minister. In a statement issued here today, Bishnoi said he had not visited Jindal House in the past 10 years and had not called Hooda in the past two years. He said if Chautala proved him wrong, he would quit politics. Chautala was not able to do so, he himself should quit politics because the people of the state would not be misled by such falsehood.

Bishnoi said in fact Chautala had realised after his party’s defeat in Hisar that there was no political future for him and his party and he was giving such statements out of frustration. The HJC leader claimed that during the initial phase of the counting of votes, INLD candidate Ajay Singh Chautala had asserted that he would win by at least one lakh votes and that he had purchased saffron clothes to present to Bishnoi, who had declared that if he lost the elections, he would renounce politics.

Bishnoi alleged that during the last Assembly elections, Chautala and Hooda had joined hands to defeat AICC general secretary Birender Singh from Uchana. He also alleged that during the Assembly elections, the INLD did not even open its office in Adampur so that its voters should vote for Congress nominee Jai Prakash. Still the people of Adampur elected him to the Assembly.

Panipat, October 19
With the city gripped in the Diwali festivities, the sale of adulterated eatables have started to cause concern among the authorities, who had launched an extensive drive against use of spurious ingredients in preparing sweets and other eatables.

Health officials, who have stepped up the campaign against adulterated food, said influx of synthetic food items go up during the festival season to meet the increased demand of sweets and other eatables. He said they had constituted special teams, which had been conducting raids across the district and collecting samples to check this menace.

Meanwhile, the district police maintained that in view of the complaints received by the department against food adulteration, they had formed special teams, which along with the health officials were conducting raids.

Pankaj Nain, district police chief, said strict action would be initiated against anyone indulging in food adulteration.

Sonepat, October 19
With the arrest of six persons, the police claims to have busted a gang involved in stealing oil from the Mathura-Panipat underground IOC pipelines.

The arrested persons are Ravinder and Jagat of Sanghi village in Rohtak district, Inder of Balpabana in Karnal district, Jasbir of Bhambhewa in Jind district, Ramesh of Bhainswal and Ajmer of Baroda in Sonepat district.

Two cars and implements used in stealing oil were seized from them when they were nabbed by a CIA team near Katwal village. The accused were remanded in four-day police custody.

According to the police, the accused have confessed stealing about 52,000 litres of oil from this pipeline. They said they used to sell the stolen oil at Rs 18 per litre in Delhi and to two persons of Assauda village in Jhajjar district. These two Assauda residents used to provide vehicles and implements for stealing oil.

Jhajjar, October 19
A four-member delegation of teachers from the UK today visited Government Girls Senior Secondary School here and interacted with students and teachers under the Haryana- UK (UK) cooperation programme.

Jhajjar is the first district in the state, which has been selected for the programme that aims at strengthening cultural and educational relations between the two countries.

During the visit, Garden Nisbet, coordinator of the delegation, said India had made a significant progress in the field of education and many Indian students were pursuing further studies in the UK. They had been able to leave their mark in Britain due to their strong foundation of primary education obtained here in India, he added.

“We are visiting India to learn the educational system of the country. It was our first visit to India and members of the delegation will always remember this visit to Haryana,” said Garden.

The delegation took a round of the school and dwelt upon the educational system of their country. Girl students of the school organised a cultural programme for the visiting dignitaries.

Later, the coordinator said 90 per cent of education in the UK was under government control. There was no code for uniform for the students of classes 12 and above. Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner said the British Council was a well-known international organisation in the field of education. The visit would develop relations between teachers and students of both countries, he added.

Chandigarh, October 19
Water woes of Panipat residents are likely to be over in near future as the decks have been cleared for launching a canal-based drinking water supply scheme for the district headquarter.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has approved the bid documents of the canal-based water supply scheme for Panipat of Rs 155 crore on turnkey basis, an official spokesman said here today.

Giving details of the scheme, he said the Chief Minister had also given his approval for the procurement of all material, including Ductile Iron (DI) pipes, by a contractor on rate basis. The Irrigation Department had also been directed to issue sanction for raw water outlet connection of 49 cusecs from the Parallel Delhi Branch or the Carrier Lined Channel.

The scheme would be financed by the Asian Development Bank.

Chandigarh, October 19
The government has set up a state-level committee to review security of oil and gas installations in the state.

The committee is headed by the DGP (CID), official sources said here today. He said the Additional DGP or the IGP, Joint or Deputy Director (IB), Commandant, CISF and General Manager of oil and gas companies in the state would be its members.

The Director, Food and Supplies, would be its member-secretary. The committee would review possible threats to oil and gas installations and lay down necessary guidelines.

"It would periodically review overall security of oil and gas installations and make recommendations to enhance the level of security," he said.

Gurgaon, October 19
The Total Sanitation Campaign is gaining momentum in the state and as many as 1,248 village panchayats and one block have been awarded the Nirmal Gram Puraskar for having achieved open defecation-free status for the past four years. Now, 757 other village panchayats and four blocks, namely Babain, Ladwa and Pehowa of Kurukshetra district besides Panipat block of Panipat district, have been nominated for the Nirmal Gram Puraskar for 2011.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while addressing the valedictory session of the three-day International Conference on Sustainable Rural Sanitation, which concluded today.

The three-day conference was organised jointly by the state government, the Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Foundation, Kolkata, and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, the UK. Delegates from eight countries, including India, Kenya, Mali, Ghana, Chad, Cambodia, Myanmar and Mongolia, participated in the conference.

Hooda said sanitation was not merely an issue of toilet construction, but it was more about habit formation and was an issue of our mindset. Awareness campaigns play a crucial role in this regard, he maintained.

Urvashi Gulati, Chief Secretary, underlined that Mahatma Gandhi valued sanitation more than freedom. Citing data of the progress of the state, she said the the growth rate of the state was 9.9 per cent, which was higher than the national rate.

Dr Kamal Kar, CLTS Foundation’s chairman, noted that in India, about 600 billion people still go for open defecation. He said three states in India, including Haryana, Maharastra and Himachal Pradesh, had adopted the Community-Led Total Sanitation Campaign.