Chandigarh, June 25
Most of the private clinics, nursing homes and diagnostic centers in Haryana remained closed today in response to a call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to protest against provisions of various Bills brought to regulate healthcare.

President of the Haryana branch of the IMA Rajan Sharma said these provisions would prove detrimental not only to the medical profession but also to patients. He said under the new provisions all medical establishments would have to be registered with the local authorities.

This would lead to licence raj, resulting in increased corruption. On the one hand, he said, the government was dismantling the licence raj in the industry. On the other hand, it was bringing the doctors under this system. Dhirendar Kumar Soni, secretary of the Haryana IMA, said the new law provided for financial penalties ranging up to Rs 5 lakh for non-registration and non-maintenance of requisite standards, which were yet to be defined. If a doctor engages in some other business, it would be treated as professional misconduct leading to cancellation of his licence.

The doctors say private practitioners have no means to sustain them in retirement and one does invest in other avenues to secure a post-retirement life. The doctors are also objecting to the provision, which requires that a doctor must “stabilise” a patient without charging anything and only then refer him to another centre. They demanded that the government should consult the IMA while taking policy decisions on health.

Sirsa/Fatehabad: Health services in Sirsa and Fatehabad were affected due to a strike by private hospitals and nursing homes. The IMA had given a call for strike against the proposed a National Council for Human Resources in Health (NCHRH) Bill - 2011. The proposed Bill aims to set up a national commission to monitor doctors.

“All private hospitals and nursing homes remained close,” claimed Dr Praveen Arora, state president of the IMA at Sirsa.The doctors submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner and the Civil Surgeon.

In Fatehabad, a team of doctors comprising president of the local IMA Dr Sanjay Bansal, Dr Vinod Batra, Dr AC Chaudhary and Dr DK Dadhich met the Deputy Commissioner, ML Kaushik, and submitted a memorandum.

Meanwhile, the health authorities had cancelled leave of all doctors in the two districts today.

SONEPAT: Over 100 private hospitals and clinics in the district on Monday witnessed closed OPDs. However, the indoor patients in these establishments were given treatment. After assembling in a banquet hall on Murthal road, members of the medical associations led by the district president of the IMA, Dr Ramesh Narang, held a protest march in the town and handed over a memorandum, addressed to the Chief Minister, Haryana, to the Deputy Commissioner, Pankaj Aggarwal.

BHIWANI: Local private practitioners observed a complete strike on Monday. All private clinics pasted stickers of the nationwide strike on their main gates while doctors tied black ribbons on their arms to protest agaist the proposed Bill. Local doctors led by Dr Prem Charaya, district president of the IMA unit, later submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner. Dr Charaya saidt the government should withdraw its Clinical Establishment Act 2010 as it would make it difficult to open a new clinic for any private practitioner.

Hisar: All private hospitals here remained closed on Monday in response to a call given by the IMA. Dr JPS Nalwa, President of the Hisar chapter of the IMA, said all chemists, druggists, pathologists and other paramedical personnel also joined the strike. Nalwa said the proposed Clinical Establishments Act would reduce the Indian Medical Council to a puppet in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians.

Reports of the strike were also received from Kaithal and Karnal.

Chandigarh, June 25
The tragic death of four-year-old Maahi after she fell into down a borewell in a Gurgaon village has led to a fierce debate among alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur, on the social site, Facebook. The debate concentrated on what was technologically possible to avert such tragedies in future.

Ranjan Kumar, who did his BTech (Mechanical Engineering) from IIT, Kanpur, in 1986, wrote that there were rescue robots. He suggested that a folded robotic arm with a camera could have been dropped with a rope that could be controlled from outside to strap up the body securely and pull out safely.

Bal Krishan Gupta found the idea “logical and doable”. Gupta, who did his BTech in Civil Engineering in 1974 from IIT, Kanpur, said it was a great idea -- “quicker to execute, chances of saving life 100 per cent. Cost effective too.”

He further suggested that such a robot could even be used during fires if it could be fitted with a human sensor and its outer body could withstand temperatures up to 300-400 degree C.

Ranjan Kumar suggested that one of the projects for developing such a robot could given to BTech students in IIT, Kanpur. He further suggested that the robotic arm could have “pluggable” attachments for various purposes -- like audio communication, LED lights, food/medicine etc.

However, there were a few skeptics also. One alumni, Rawat wrote “when a child is stuck in the hole, how much space is left for something to go under the child from the child's sides, it would hold the key for the success of the equipment being designed. Something like a closed fist that...”

Savyasaachi Jain wrote, “Lovely ideas about robots and all that, but how about a simple frame to cover the bore hole and prevent such mishaps in the first place? I think this should be manageable in a few hundred rupees...”

Spurred by the debate, Haryana State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir, himself a Master of Science in Physics from IIT Kanpur has written to Director of the Kanpur IIT, Sanjay Dhande, that it would be a good idea if the IITK could explore the possibility of developing a technology-based rescue mechanism for such tragedies.

Dharam Vir, who retired as the Chief Secretary of Haryana before taking up his present assignment, has also written to the Union Cabinet Secretary on the issue.

Sirsa, June 25
No lessons have been learnt in Sirsa from the tragic death of Maahi, who fell in a borewell in a Gurgaon village, as hundreds of “death holes” are giving an open invitation to unsuspecting children in the district.

The “death holes” — including abandoned bore wells and uncovered sewer manholes — have resulted in accidents, including the death of a boy who fell in an uncovered manhole, in the past. But these incidents have failed to awaken the authorities from their slumber.

Residents of Sirsa’s Inderpuri Mohalla, who have been running from pillar to post for getting sealed of a 350-deep borewell left open by the Public Health Department, raised slogans against the slack attitude of the authorities after news of Maahi’s death appeared in newspapers and on television channels“The authorities have left this hole uncovered for months after they had to abandon this. Repeated requests to the authorities have failed to move them. We fear for the life of our small children who often play in the streets,” said residents Sunita, Kiran, Manjit Kaur, Tilak Raj and others.

The functioning of the Public Health Department is so casual that scores of manholes in Sirsa town, Rania and Ellenabad are still lying uncovered for long despite death of a five-year-old child by falling in an open manhole on February 5, 2011.

Human life, it seems, is not very important for the authorities as no action has so far been taken against any official for the child’s death despite agitations and demonstrations on the issue.

“Our inquiries revealed that the child was he was looking backwards while running forward,” reasoned Angad Bishnoi, Superintending Engineer of the Public Health Department in Sirsa.

He maintained that the department acted promptly when informed of unsealed borewells or uncovered manholes, but alleged that people stole the covers soon.

A leading district of Haryana in agriculture, Sirsa has nearly 58,000 tubewells.

Many farmers callously leave the bores uncovered whenever it fails to provide suitable water after digging.

“I have asked the Public Health and Agriculture departments to conduct a survey on the number of borewells and manholes left uncovered in the district,” said Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan. He said according to last year’s survey, there were nearly 640 abandoned borewells in the district.

Rewari, June 25
A migrant woman labourer Kashi Bai of Madhya Pradesh died while another male labourer Pearey Lal Kushwaha sustained serious injuries when they got buried in a 15-ft deep pit of a toll plaza, which is under construction after the Earth abruptly caved in on the Rewari-Rohtak road at Jat Gangaicha village, 8 km from here, yesterday.

The injured Pearey Lal was admitted to the PGIMS, Rohtak.

Meanwhile the police has registered a case of causing death by negligence against contractor Santosh Kumar of Madhya Pradesh and driver of the JCB Machine Dharamender, engineer of the construction company Mangat Ram, and the company’s deputy manager Vikas.

A senior police official said the matter was being investigated.

Hisar, June 25
A young Dalit boy was assaulted at his house on the Kaimri Road here last night allegedly by the family members of his upper-caste wife. The assailants also abducted his wife, Shalu Sharma.

The couple originally hails from Ratia in Fatehabad district. They had married against the wishes of the girl’s family in March this year. They had got their marriage registered in a court and a gunman was provided to the newlyweds by the police. They shifted to Fatehabad after their marriage.

They sent back the gunman after a few weeks and shifted their residence to Kaimri Road here. Late last night, family members of Shalu reached their house and assaulted Kuldeep. They overpowered him and took Shalu along forcibly. The harried husband informed the police which raided several places to locate the girl. However, they have not yet succeeded.

Kuldeep, who is undergoing treatment in the General Hospital here, said his father-in-law, brother-in-law and around a dozen more persons accompanying them forcibly entered their house and attacked him. They took away Shalu in a jeep, he said, adding that he feared for his wife’s life. He has now again sought police protection.

He said he was under pressure to divorce his wife. “We are both adults and we have done nothing illegal. We should be allowed to live peacefully,” he added. Kuldeep works as a daily-wage construction worker.

Jhajjar, June 25
In a protest against erratic power supply and acute scarcity of drinking water in most of the villages in the district, a large number of INLD workers led by former MLA Nafe Singh Rathi today held a massive demonstration in Bahadurgarh town located on the border of Delhi and Haryana.

The INLD workers also submitted a memorandum to the Haryana Governor through the Bahadurgarh administrative authorities. Earlier, protesters gathered at the railway station this morning and contemplated over deteriorating condition of power and drinking water in the district.

Nafe Singh Rathi said the Hooda government had failed to provide basics facilities like power and water to people. “People have to struggle hard for getting drinking water these days as they either have to fetch drinking water from the far-flung areas in this scorching heat or have to buy water from some private suppliers to meet their daily requirement. Similarly, normal life has thrown out of gear in the district because of long and unscheduled power cuts,” said Rathi.

He added that the situation had taken such an alarming turn that villagers had started blocking roads to mount pressure on the authorities for providing adequate supply of power and potable water to the villages. People had blocked the vehicular traffic on various roads so many times this season for getting the power and water crisis sorted but no officer paid any heed to it.

Rohtak, June 25
The Rohtak range police has announced to go for video-conferencing on a large scale for the trial of all heinous cases of crime in the four districts falling under the range.

The scheme has already been launched with the process adopted for hearing of 780 undertrials so far in the past two months.

The police chiefs of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Panipat have been asked to review all cases pending in the court and identify those heinous in nature, said a spokesperson of the department.

“The SPs have been asked to deal with the matter under their direct supervision to ensure that each case of a serious nature was tried under such a system so that there was no obstacle of any kind till it was decided finally by the court,” he added.

The police of the four districts has been directed to identify all cases minutely and submit a detailed report within a week regarding cases involving dreaded criminals or which were required to be tried in such a manner.

The purpose behind adopting such a process was to ensure free and fair trial in such cases, it is claimed. The number of cases tried in this manner could be raised considerably if the experiment was successful and there was no hindrance in the process, said an official of the IG office here.

The method has been put to practice in several cases already and trial of 780 undertrials has been held through video-conferencing in the four districts falling in the Range in April and May. The break down includes 163 undertrials of Panipat, 150 of Sonepat, 77 in Jhajjar and one in Rohtak in April this year. During May, the number of trials held under video-conferencing include 37 in Jhajjar, 223 in Sonepat and 129 in Panipat, respectively.

This method was required to be popularised as there was adequate infrastructure and facility available in 
the district courts of the Range, claimed the IG, Alok Mittal.

Chandigarh, June 25
Though there is no time-bound grievance redressing system for the 'aam aadmi' in Haryana, Members of Parliament are set to get a special privilege: Their complaints and privilege notices against district officials will get a prompt reply within 15 days.

In a development that will supposedly go a long way in restoring respect and dignity of the elected representatives, the Political and Parliamentary Affairs Department of Chief Secretary's Office has shot off a communication to all senior functionaries of the Haryana Government to observe these guidelines in letter and in spirit.

"The complaints/privilege notices addressed by MPs to Lok Sabha Speaker and Rajya Sabha Chairman and received through the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension (Department of Personnel and Training) should be dealt with promptly and a report furnished to this department with 15 days," the order dated June 12, copies of which had been sent to administrative secretaries, divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and subdivisional officers(civil), stated.

The complaints along with comments and views will also be looked into by an officer of appropriate seniority before they are sent to the central ministry, officials highlighted, adding that any violation of the laid-down guidelines would be viewed seriously.

It has been a long-standing complaint of the elected representatives that the district officials fight shy of providing information to them regarding various projects of public welfare. After failure to get information, the MPs file complaints and privilege notices with the presiding officers of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.

Hisar, June 25
Engineers of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam today held a demonstration and wore black badges outside the head office of the nigam here today for an hour. The protest had been organised by the Haryana Power Engineers Association.

They demanded that the extension given to Chief Engineer, Bhakra Beas Management Board, beyond superannuation on the recommendation of BBMB Chairman be withdrawn immediately. The post of Chief Engineer Transmission in the BBMB is a cadre post and the state power utility had rejected the recommendation of BBMB Chairman as this was against the state service rules.

Engineers also demanded that a regular Managing Director be posted as head of the nigam. At present Deputy Commissioner, Hisar, has been given additional charge of the post. Besides, a post of Additional Managing Director had been created in the DHBVN against the norms and an HCS officer had been in charge of the post.

The gate meeting was addressed by RS Dahiya, president of the association. He said senior-most engineers were being made answerable to officials junior to them.

All power engineers throughout the state would sport black badges up to June 29 to press their demands.

New Delhi, June 25
The Supreme Court today sought a status report from Haryana and 13 other states on holding second counselling for the 50 per cent central quota in admissions to postgraduate medical courses.

A Bench comprising Justices HL Gokhale and Ranjana Desai directed the states to file their reports within a week and posted the next hearing for July 9.

The Bench, however, refused to pass any order asking the states not to fill the central quota seats. The apex court was hearing a writ petition filed by a doctor, maintaining that at least 14 states had not held the second counselling for filling central quota seats in violation of a series of SC orders.

The state governments were illegally usurping central quota seats to offer them to students from their own states, the petitioner contended. If the states were allowed to have their way, at least 1,000 central quota seats would go to them, it was stated. Among the erring states were Maharashtra and Delhi.

Six of the 14 states had not even issued the notification for second counselling despite the fact that admissions would come to a close by the middle of next month, counsel Indu Malhotra said while arguing for the petitioner.

Fatehabad, June 25
A face-off is on the cards as the authorities have issued a notice for public hearing on July 17 at the site of the Gorakhpur Atomic Power Project on its Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) while farmers opposed to the project have announced to gather in large number to oppose the meeting.

A notice issued by the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) said Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) proposed to set up electricity generation using nuclear power (4X700 MW) at Gorakhpur.

The project, the notice said, was covered under the EIA notification dated September 14, 2006, and thus required to obtain environmental clearance.

According to the procedure for environment clearance, notified by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, a public hearing will be conducted on July 17, so as to obtain views and objections of the nearby public on the project.

The notice said copies of the executive summary of the project and the EIA study report, as submitted by the NPCIL, were available for public perusal in the offices of the DC, the regional officer of the HSPCB, the zila parishad and the municipal council office.

The Deputy Commissioner, ML Kaushik, will chair the meeting while the regional officer of the HSPCB will be the member secretary.

Chandigarh, June 25
After allegations of the police involvement in the recent ‘Apna Ghar’ scandal in Rohtak, the Haryana Police has issued instructions not to summon women and children to police stations for questioning. Haryana DGP RS Dalal issued the instructions to all police stations across the state recently, officials said.

Dalal said this was done to ensure sensitivity and protection of rights of women and children. “The ban has come at a time when the state police is under scanner for its alleged role in the sexual abuse of the ‘Apna Ghar’ inmates.”

Dalal's directive comes in addition to the existing law, which states that a woman or a child cannot be detained in the police station after sunset unless the police has ample evidence against them. — PTI