Chandigarh, October 25
Decks were cleared today for Swami Agnivesh to fly to Italy with the Punjab and Haryana High Court permitting him to travel abroad.

The development is significant as conditions imposed at the time of granting bail to Swami Agnivesh prohibit him from travelling abroad without the court’s prior permission.

As Swami Agnivesh’s plea for a 10-day permission to travel abroad came up for hearing, Justice Ajay Tewari - holding the court during the Diwali vacation - made it clear that the bail would stand cancelled in case of his failure to return to India after the stipulated period.

The swami was booked on May 26 on the complaint of Parveen Kumar Tayal. The swami has been accused of terming the Amarnath Yatra a fraud in the name of religion. The statement had come during his meeting with president of Hurriat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani.

In his petition filed through counsel RS Bains, the swami claimed he had been invited to Italy by the Pope for attending a function. Bains told the court that the invitation was received by the swami before the registration of the case.

In an attempt to substantiate his contentions, a copy of the invite was annexed with the petition.

Pope Benedict XVI has invited 300 religious leaders to a meeting in Assisi in Italy to repudiate “violence in the name of God”. The day of inter-religious council, which will be held on Thursday in St. Francis of Assisi’s birthplace, is intended to be a “journey of reflection, dialogue and prayer for peace and justice in the world,” the Vatican said.

Over 50 Islamic representatives will be joined by Rabbis, Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs during the meeting.

Panipat, October 25
Following reports of a blind hippo being used by Jumbo Circus published in these columns and complaints filed by animal activist Naresh Kadyan, the Animal Welfare Board of India has constituted a panel to inspect the hippo and the conditions under which other animals are kept by the circus staff.

In a formal communiqué sent to Panipat deputy commissioner JS Ahlawat, the board stated that a special team, comprising Dr LR Raheja, deputy director, Animal Husbandry Department, and Kulvir Singh, co-opted member of the board and forest department, had been constituted to inspect the animal and the conditions under which the animals were kept at the Jumbo Circus, presently running shows at the local sectors 13-17.

The board said it had received a complaint in which it was alleged that animals sheltered in Jumbo Circus were being used to perform without any registration with of the board.

It was learnt that the circus had got registered eight elephants, 13 horses, 13 dogs, one hippo, 15 parrots, three camels and one pelican as on May 13, 2004. The circus added two donkeys, one goat, two turkey, 13 dogs, eight Persian cats and one Emu which were registered with the board on September 7, 2009.

The animal activist, in his complaint, had stated that the animals were not provided proper shelter, food and medical treatment.

Vinod Kumar, assistant sectary, AWBI, said if these allegations were proved, it would be a violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and other animal laws and would call for a legal action.

Besides, the board also asked the deputy commissioner to ensure that the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) was asked to perform its duties and take immediate steps to make certain that there was no violation of the PCA Act 1960.

Panipat, October 25
The power situation in the state, which has been a cause of concern for the consumers, is far from improving despite “best efforts” being put forth by the power authorities. With three thermal units down, the state is reeling under severe power shortage just a day before Diwali.

According to sources in the power utilities, unit number 1 at the Yamunanagar thermal power plant which is of 300 MW today tripped, while the unit number 2 here is already shut down as it was hit by a fault a few days ago. The fault is yet to identified. The outages of these units have resulted in a shortage of 600 MW of power in the state. Besides, the unit number 2 of Khedar power plant also tripped today which reduced the total power in the state by another 600 MW.

The state which has a total installed capacity of 3,250.3 MW was getting only 1,709 MW from all its thermal units, including the eight units at the Panipat thermal power plant, which were all operational, adding 1,163 MW to the total power availability in the state.

As of today, the demand had touched 1,100 lakh units while the power availability which till yesterday was around 950 lakh units today took a plunge and only 880 lakh unit were available. In order to bridge this gap, the power utilities were overdrawing 400 to 1,000 MW from the Northern Gird at inflated rates.

It is learnt that coal stocks at the thermal plants in the state are also not up to the mark. The Panipat thermal plant has a reserve of 24,000 tonnes which is sufficient for only a single day while at Yamunanagar, the stock is 31,000 tonnes, which can sustain generation for three days. Besides, at Khedar, the stock was of 54,000 tonnes which can last only for three days.

Chandigarh, October 25
The blame-game in the Haryana Congress over the Hisar debacle continues to rage even as the party candidate from the parliamentary seat, Jai Prakash, shot off another letter, this time against four “saboteurs”, to state chief Phool Chand Mullana.

Meanwhile, in a separate letter to the general secretary in charge of Haryana, BK Hariprasad, Mullana, owning moral responsibility for the party’ s defeat, has left his fate to the disciplinary committee of the party.

Sources in the Congress said Jai Prakash, JP as he is usually referred to, has also sought action against former MLA and ticket-aspirant Chattarpal Singh. This is in addition to the three senior leaders, Union Minister Selja, Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh and Haryana minister Kiran Choudhry, against whom the party moved a resolution at JP’s instance at a recent introspection meeting.

The sources said in his letter to Mullana, JP has highlighted the fact that the four leaders spoilt the party’s chances during the Hisar bypoll by indulging in anti-party activities. He has added that this was not only brought to his notice but also stated to Hariprasad by loyal party workers.

However, their complaints were not given due importance. Adding that it was not about his individual election but about spoiling the party name, JP has repeated his demand for action against them. Maintaining that they are members of the state coordination committee, he says they continue to indulge in activities which do not augur well for the party.

In his letter, he has gone on to add that if these tendencies are not checked, they will adversely affect the Ratia and Adampur bypoll. Further, he adds that if such anti-party activities are overlooked, they will impact the elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Punjab also.

Meanwhile, Phool Chand Mullana, in his letter to Hariprasad, has summed up the proceedings of the recent Congress meeting held in Chandigarh to discuss the Hisar debacle and conveyed the sentiments of the partymen.

In this same letter, he has owned moral responsibility for the party’s defeat and offered to resign in case the disciplinary committee deems it fit.

“I have not resigned, only owned moral responsibility for the party’s performance. The rest is up to the party high command. I will step down, if asked to,” Mullana said.

The hunt for a new state unit chief has been on within the Congress for nearly a year now, but the party is yet to find a “suitable” candidate. Sources maintain that the process could gain momentum now.

Jind, October 25
The Haryana unit of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), Kandela group, has rejected the new wheat MSP of Rs 1,285 per quintal for 2012 rabi season. It has asked the Union Government to revise it to at least Rs 2,000 per quintal.

Ramphal Kandela, general secretary of the BKU, described the new MSP as meagre in view of a sharp rise in input costs. Claiming that the new rate was a cruel joke on the farming community, he said the MSP announced even fail to meet the recommendations by the National Agricultural Commission, which he said, had asked the government to announce at least Rs 1320, although it had not included the percentage increase in the price of fertilisers, seeds and pesticides.

Demanding dismantling of the present system of deciding the MSP each year by bureaucrats and technocrats, he said the rates should be decided by the farmers and not those at the helm of power who had no knowledge of the hardships faced by a farmer.

He said the government had been following the policy of exploitation of poor farmers and the huge gap in the cost of production which is evident from the meagre MSP. He asked the government to either revise it or provide some bonus to the farmers to help them tide over the crisis faced by them.

The union has submitted a memorandum to the state and union cabinet through the local authorities, expressing its displeasure over the new MSP.

Sirsa, October 25
As people across the country busy shopping for Diwali, family members of four officials of the Fisheries Department here are penniless on this festival of “Lakshmi pujan”, as the officials have not received their salaries for the past six months.

Such is the plight of these families that Balmat, a chowkidar-cum-safai karamchari of the department lost his son five days ago because he could not provide him the medical treatment he needed.

Balbir Singh, district fisheries officer, said the salaries would be given as soon as he got the budgetary sanctions from the head office, while PV Singh, director, Fisheries Department, disconnected the phone without giving his version.

Balmat and other officials of the department, Suman Bala, fisheries officer; Satnam Singh, driver; and Sooraj Pal, sewadar; last received salary in April this year. There are some others outside Sirsa who have also not received their salaries.

“Our superiors have been telling us that they have not received the budgetary sanctions from the head office, making the lives of our families miserable,” said an official.

“Earlier, we were the employees of the Fish Farmers Development Authority (FFDA), which was merged with the Fisheries Department some years ago. However, while the officials of the department have been getting their salaries regularly, we have not been paid any salary for the past six months,” he said.

In a letter to the district fishery officer-cum-chief executive officer of the FFDA, the employees have threatened that if their salaries were not released, they would be left with no option but to commit suicide along with their families and the entire responsibility would be on the departmental authorities.

“I do not remember for how many days my children have slept without even having a morsel of bread,” said an official, adding that now, his milkman had stopped supplying milk and the landlord haf been threatening him to throw out his belongings out of the house if he failed to pay the rent

Fatehabad, October 25
While people all over are busy in Diwali festivities, a large number of senior citizens have been waiting for their old-age pension, some of them for the past five months.

Some senior citizens appeared before the District and Sessions Judge Raj Kumar Tewatia, when he visited the old-age home “Baghban” here to know their grievances today.

Over 30 senior citizens from Nangal village met the block development officer at Ratia and sought his intervention for an early release of their pension.

Similarly, several elderly persons from Bhattu Block have also been running from pillar to post to get their monthly pension.

Guranditta from Bighar village appeared before the judge and complained that his daughter Krishna, a widow, had been knocking every possible door for the start of her social security pension, but to no avail. He alleged that the response of the authorities had been apathetic.

Tewatia asked SDM Baljit Singh, who was also present there, to look into their cases.

Under the social welfare programme of the courts, Tewatia has been visiting the old-age home every month to know the problem of senior citizens.

“I take up their complaints with the appropriate authorities and in most cases, the problems are solved,” he said.

If legal aid was needed, the case was referred to the advocates empanelled in the District Legal Services Authority, he said.

Goela (Mewat), October 25
A day ahead of the festival of lights, residents of Goela village in Tauru block of Nuh (Mewat) district celebrated a unique “solar Diwali” as the village got a solar charging station today.

The charging station was dedicated to the people by Nuh deputy commissioner Balraj Singh Mor, who was the chief guest on the occasion. In his address, Mor exhorted the residents to come forward and play a proactive role to make the project a success.

The solar lighting project has been launched in four villages of the district in order to provide an eco-friendly alternative source of energy to the local residents who face an acute shortage of electricity.

The Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRAD), in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), took up a solar lighting initiative on a pilot basis at Goela (Tauru block), Kotla (Nagina block) and Raniyali and Naharika (Firozepur Jhirka block) in Mewat as part of the Light a Billion Lives (LaBL) project launched by TERI in 2008.

Under the project, 50 households in each of the said villages have been provided with solar lanterns, which can be charged at the solar charging station located at the village itself.

“On an average, the power cuts in Mewat villages span for 10-16 hours a day and often leave households in darkness at night. In view of the situation, solar charging stations have been set up in the said villages. Each station can charge 50 lanterns during the day and a fully charged lantern provides light for 4-6 hours,” said an IRRAD official.

The LaBL project aims to enable a billion residents to access light from solar power technology and is accredited by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Union Government. Based on a fee-for-service model, solar lanterns are rented out every day in exchange for a nominal recharging fee.

The solar charging stations set up by IRRAD in each village promote entrepreneurship at the local level. This has been done by affecting the handover of the facility to a local entrepreneur who will earn from rental collection of recharging lanterns and plough back Rs 1,500 per month in maintenance and smooth functioning of the facility. The community together with the local entrepreneur will decide the rental.

“The solar-lantern project is expected to help raise education levels in the villages and ease evening household chores. It is a win-win situation,” remarked Jane Schukoske, CEO of IRRAD.

Panipat, October 25
Officials of the state Food and Drug Control Department today raided and sealed three hookah bars located in the plush model area of the city.

The raids came in the wake of the orders issued by the Punjab and Haryana High Court following a petition in which it had been alleged that nicotine was being served at these bars.

The bars included Fog, Bristo and Relax. A team of officials was lead by drug controller Manmohan Taneja, who said the samples had been taken and would be sent for examination to ascertain if the mixture had nicotine that exceeded the permissible limit, which was general practice at such bars. The drug controller said these bars had been asked to discontinue with serving hookahs till the test reports of the samples were not received.