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Controversy refuses to die down over Gorakhpur nuclear plant
Villagers told to deposit firearms
Suicide bid: Farmer’s condition still critical
HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi enquires about the health of Gorakhpur farmer Badloo from Kisan Sangharsh Samiti chief Hans Raj Siwach (in turban) at Fatehabad on Sunday. A Tribune photograph |
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Panchkula flat aspirants feel cheated
Restrict power overdrawals, CERC tells state
Biomedical waste dumped in the open on the General Hospital premises at Sirsa. A Tribune photograph
Garbage disposal set to go hi-tech in Rohtak
Ex-servicemen boycott CSD outlets
Acid attack: Police gives Rs 10 lakh to victim
Polytechnic lecturers threaten stir
Special cleanliness drive launched
4 Nigerians among 5 held for online lottery fraud
Child drowns in ditch
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Controversy refuses to die down over Gorakhpur nuclear plant Sushil Manav/TNS
Fatehabad, July 15 The HJC-BJP alliance as well as the Indian National Lok Dal have already begun their campaign to mobilise people for this meeting. Hisar MP and HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi and Ellenabad MLA Abhey Singh Chautala have already confirmed their participation in the Gorakhpur meeting while senior BJP leader Jagdish Chopra said either state BJP president Krishan Pal Gurjar or some other senior party leader would attend the public hearing. Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar and Fatehabad MLA and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Prahlad Singh Gillankhera are also likely to attend the meeting from the ruling party. The dilemma of the authorities is that the proceedings of their meeting may not be conducted peacefully. However, stopping activists from reaching the meeting venue would mar the entire proceedings. It would be against the spirit of a public hearing to stop various stakeholders from attending the meeting and raising their concerns. Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik said every well-intentioned person was welcome to attend the meeting. Meanwhile, Kuldeep Bishnoi has described the public hearing as a farce. “According to the rules, local people should be given the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report one month prior to the public hearing. The EIA report should be translated in the local language and must be distributed freely to village bodies and the individuals concerned of the area. In case of Gorakhpur, these rules have been blatantly violated at every level,” alleged Kuldeep Bishnoi. He said while the notice for the EIA hearing was sent to the village panchayat on June 16, the EIA report was not made available to it at all. TR Arora, chief project manager of the NPCIL, said the document was available with the Haryana State Pollution Control Board office.
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Villagers told to deposit firearms
Fatehabad, July 15 After retracting from their stand for the second time, the authorities today directed all licensed arms holders of Gorakhpur village to deposit their weapons with the police by July 16. “A public hearing for granting environment clearance to the upcoming nuclear power plant is to be held in the village on July 17. With a view to ensuring that the meeting passes off peacefully, the villagers are directed to deposit their weapons with the police by July 16,” said a statement issued on behalf of District Magistrate ML Kaushik. Earlier, the authorities had made a public announcement in the village directing the villagers to deposit their firearms with the police by July 12. A large majority of the 84 licensed arms holders preferred to ignore the orders. While addressing mediapersons in his office before the end of the deadline, the Deputy Commissioner maintained that he had never issued any directions in this regard. “Why will I ask the villagers to deposit their firearms?” asked Kaushik and claimed that the July 17 public hearing would be peaceful. Taking a U-turn on his stand for the second time, the DC today issued fresh directions asking the villagers to deposit their firearms with the police by July 16.
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Suicide bid: Farmer’s condition still critical
Fatehabad, July 15 Doctors attending on him said he was on ventilator and his condition was stable, but still not out of
danger. Kuldeep Bishnoi, Member of Parliament from Hisar and HJC chief, today visited the ailing farmer in Siwach Hospital in
Fatehabad. “Do not resort to the extreme step. I assure you that your land will not be allowed to be taken away till I have the last drop of blood in my body,” Bishnoi appealed to farmers after Kisan Sangharsh Samiti president Hans Raj Siwach threatened that farmers would commit “mass suicide” if their land was “snatched”. Later, talking to
mediapersons, Bishnoi said his late father Bhajan Lal and he had been opposing this project ever since the government had issued a notification for the acquisition of land. When his attention was drawn to reported letters attributed to his father in support of the project when he was the Chief Minister, Bishnoi said what was relevant 35 years ago might not be good today. “The entire world has seen the Fukushima nuclear power plant in blasts after a tsunami rocked Japan and countries like Japan and Germany have started looking for other options for power,” he said.
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Panchkula flat aspirants feel cheated
Panchkula, July 15 Inspired by this confidence, Gupta paid Rs 36 lakh as 90 per cent of the cost of the flat. The remaining Rs 4 lakh (10 per cent of the cost) was to be paid by him at the time of the delivery of the possession. The deadline has passed since long and Gupta does not know when his wait for the flat would be over because only two blocks of the proposed 24 have been constructed so far. About 320 other persons are also sailing in the same boat as Gupta, but they do not want to be identified for fear of losing their hard-earned money. Gupta made a complaint to the Director, TCPD, on May 31, 2010, against the builder. The department sought the comments of the builder, which were sent to Gupta and the matter rested there. Not satisfied, Gupta made another complaint to the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, TCPD, SS Dhillon, in early 2011. Dhillon asked Additional Director, Urban Estates, Vivek Atray to look into Gupta’s complaint. After hearing both parties, Atray concluded in May 2011 that “there is clearly an appreciable amount of delay in the execution of the project…the undersigned visited the site and found that there was hardly any construction activity on, and even by the builder’s (respondent) own submission, only the brick work of Phase I is ready as of now.” Atray also recommended that the TCPD should penalise the builder…because the licence was granted by the department and “it is incumbent upon them (the department) that they ensure execution of the project as per the laid down terms and conditions.” The officer also concluded that the builder’s claim that Gupta had defaulted in making the payment “do not appear valid when the project itself has been delayed”. Almost after five months of submission of Atray’s report, the TCPD issued a notice to the builder asking him to explain why action should not be taken against him for violating various conditions of the licence and the rules. It is not known why the department did not wake up when the builder had been violating its rules for the past several years. Interestingly, in his reply the builder accused the department of being biased against him and not taking any action against several companies, which, he said, were “similarly situated” as Samar Estates. Meanwhile, Gupta moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court praying for directions to the Haryana Government to take action (against the builder) as mandated under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, and order an inquiry by the CBI or any other independent agency into the issue of licences to unscrupulous builders and failure of officials in not taking action against the violators. Vinod Bagai, MD of Samar Estate, said his company had complied with all rules and regulations of the TCPD and had paid all fees to it. The project, he said, had been delayed because of recession and labour shortage caused by MNREGA. The applicants had also defaulted in making timely payments, he said.
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Restrict power overdrawals, CERC tells state
Ambala, July 15 These directions were issued after the Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NRLDC) had filed a petition with the CERC that Haryana was overdrawing from the grid under the Unscheduled Interchange (UI) and the daily overdrawals had been significantly high when the frequency of the grid was below 49.5 Hz. It was only last month that Power System Operation Corporation Limited had filed an application before the CERC listing the instances of heavy overdrawals by Haryana from the northern grid. This application had listed that the state had been overdrawing 90 lakh units daily on average since May. The commission in its notice stated that it would be the responsibility of the officers who had overall charge of the state transmission utilities and the State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) to ensure the compliance of the directions. Any lapses in doing so would call for appropriate action as per the provisions of the Act, warned the commission. As per the CERC notice, power overdrawals by the state was maximum in the northern region and was 51 per cent more of the scheduled drawal for first three months of year. Haryana had relied heavily on the overdrawals for meeting its power requirements due to closure of a number of thermal units in the state and a steep rise in demand, which had touched the 1,600 mark this season. Sources said the NRLDC had already conveyed to the state power authorities to maintain grid discipline. In May, Haryana on an average overdrew 90
lakh units daily and on certain days even exceeded 200 lakh units mark. Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited (HVPNL) in its reply stated that the overdrawals during the period in question was mainly due to forced outages of the state sector generating units. |
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Biomedical waste being dumped in the open
Sirsa, July 15 Flouting rules in this regard with impunity, the hospital staff often throw away biomedical waste like used intravenous drips and sets as well as syringes and needles in the open with the normal waste. Ironically, Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan had recently constituted a committee, having the Civil Surgeon and several other officials as its members, to monitor the management of biomedical waste by private hospitals in Sirsa. However, the government’s own hospital has been caught on the wrong foot for dumping biomedical waste in the open. Rules stipulate that all biomedical waste has to be disposed of in accordance with the provisions of the Biomedical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 1998, aimed at controlling the indiscriminate disposal of biomedical waste. In Sirsa, the authorities have given the task of management of biomedical waste to Synergy Waste Management, which charges monthly fees from every hospital for the services provided by it. Under the rules, the company has to provide red bags to doctors for packing their plastic waste, which are later autoclaved, chemically treated and sliced up before being disposed of to scrap dealers. The company also provided yellow bags for packing items like placenta, infected bandages, cotton, body parts and small animals, which are incinerated at their facilities at a temperature between 850 degrees to 1,100 degrees Celsius. The blue puncture-proof containers are meant for packing sharp-edged items like needles and glass bottles. Dr GS Somani, Medical Superintendent of the General Hospital, Sirsa, said strict instructions had been issued to the hospital staff for proper management of the rules in this regard.
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Garbage disposal set to go hi-tech in Rohtak
According to officials, all tractors and trucks deployed for the collection and disposal of garbage from the city will be GPS-enabled. “As the GPS will help locate the spot where the vehicles are present, officials will be able to monitor their movement and working in a better way. This will help the corporation maintain cleanliness in the city,” claimed an official. He said the local municipal corporation had around 20 tractors and their movement and working was being done manually at present which often resulted in problems. The GPS would be supervised by sanitary inspectors, who would ensure that the vehicles dumped the garbage at the designated place and in the minimum possible time. A toll-free number (18001805007) had been set up on which officials could be contacted in case there was a delay in the removal of garbage from any spot in the city. Meanwhile, the civic body, which was upgraded to a municipal corporation last year, continues to be plagued by several problems, including shortage of staff and machinery. There is a shortage of safai karamcharis given the huge population they have to cater to, claimed a spokesperson for the Haryana Nagar Palika Karamchari Sangh. He said the mere introduction of the GPS would not help much if the authorities failed to provide adequate staff and equipment. “Civic officials are only concerned about certain pockets inhabited by influential persons in the city while other areas are being neglected,” alleged Deepak Kaushik, a local resident.
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Ex-servicemen boycott CSD outlets
Karnal, July 15 The call to boycott CSD outlets given by the All-India Ex-servicemen Association evoked tremendous response and hundreds of ex-servicemen participated in the protest at Karnal. Niranjan Jagsina, district president of the INLD, ex-servicemen cell, lamented that the CSD services had been drastically degraded, forcing the ex-servicemen to purchase various goods from market. The canteen services have been shifted from the Army (QMG Branch) to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). The car sales through a CSD outlet have been stopped for the past more than one year and there are only very few special cases which are accepted at the MoD level by its civilian staff. A ex-serviceman has no access to facility to purchase scooter or motorcycle from the outlets due to the problematic CSD depot system. Similarly, there has been difficulty in procuring electronics items like TVs, refrigerators or air-conditioners, protesting ex-servicemen rued. "Even the Against Firm Demand (AFD) purchase, facilities have been choked and ex-servicemen are facing the same problems due to the same CSD depot system inspite of paying in advance for each item and lack of funds is cited as reason by the CSD,” a spokesman of ex-servicemen said. As a result the CSD general store's purchase, stocking and sale has been clamped down financially at the CSD depot level and at the Unit Run Canteens (URCs) as well and most of the URCs stock level has come down tremendously. The association has also written a letter to the Joint Chairman, Chief of Staff Committee, to restore the sanctity of the CSD outlets and bring back the hassle-free service available to the ex-servicemen and hand over the operations back to the Army from the MOD.
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Acid attack: Police gives Rs 10 lakh to victim
Rohtak, July 15 The CBI had recently taken over the probe of the case in which three schoolgirls were hurt in an acid attack last year. The case was handed over to the CBI following directions from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which was reportedly not satisfied with the police investigation. The directions had come after a petition filed in the court by one of the victims that the police had acted in a biased manner as it had given a clean chit to one of the youths who was the prime suspect in the case. The name of the main accused had been revealed by the victim after a month of the registration of the case before a Duty Magistrate. However, the police allegedly failed to interrogate him properly, which led to resentment among relatives of the victims. Police officials handed over the cheque for Rs 10 lakh to the victim’s kin at her residence here last evening. The cheque has been released from the Police Welfare Fund on the directions of the Haryana DGP, said a police spokesperson. He added that Rs 5 lakh had already been given to another victim, who was undergoing treatment at Apollo Hospital in New Delhi. The CBI is likely to submit its report before the court on July 30. It is waiting for the arrival of the main victim to record her statement. |
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Polytechnic lecturers threaten stir
Nilokheri (Karnal), July 15 The association said the lecturers were feeling cheated as the scales, released after a long-drawn struggle, had not been implemented in letter and spirit. In a rejoinder to the government, president of the association Parminder Mann said there was great resentment among the 1,000 lecturers due to non-release of the financial benefits. The lecturers had adopted the path of agitation and had even boycotted examinations to pressure the government to accept their demands. He urged the government to release the financial benefits immediately and implement the notification in letter and spirit to avoid another confrontation. The notification issued by the government was only on paper and the lecturers had not been benefited by it. “We were told that the benefits would be given before July so that three per cent annual increment could be given on the new scales. However, nothing has been done,” he said. |
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Special cleanliness drive launched
Kaithal, July 15 This was stated by BS Malik, Director General, Panchayats and Rural Development Department, Haryana, while addressing villagers at the Rajeev Gandhi Seva Kendra in Rohera village of the district after launching a special cleanliness drive and campaign against use of polythene bags yesterday. He exhorted villagers to keep the village streets clean like their own house and urged them to desist from spreading garbage at different places and rather collect garbage at one place and then dispose it off in a systematic way. The space on streets should not be used for feeding and keeping animals as it adversely affected sanitation, he added. He said the state government was planning to set up waste management plants in different districts, which will pave the way for maintaining cleanliness and use of waste material. He added that as the government wanted to stop defecation in open it had decided to grant Rs 10,000 for construction of toilets in the rural areas. Malik advised villagers not to use polythene bags and rather carry jute or cloth bags while making purchases from the market. Deputy Commissioner Chander Shekhar urged villagers to keep villages clean and fulfill dream of Mahatma Gandhi. |
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4 Nigerians among 5 held for online lottery fraud
Gurgaon, July 15 The foreign nationals were produced before a local court yesterday, which remanded them in police custody for three days. A number of mobile phone handsets, SIM cards, laptops and Rs 2 lakh were seized from their possession, the police said. According to the investigators, the arrested persons had duped many people of lakhs of rupees. They recently targeted a trader in Bargarda district of Orissa by sending him an e-mail that he had won Rs 1.6 crore in a lottery conducted by a UK-based multinational firm. They furnished documents of a reputed company to convince the trader. The trader was told that he was required to deposit a certain amount to avail of the lottery amount. The trader fell prey to their tempting offer and deposited about Rs 5 lakh in different bank accounts on their directions. The accused told the trader that he would have to come to Delhi to collect his winning amount. However, when they demanded more money from him, he grew suspicious and informed the police. Investigations made by the police led them to Gurgaon, where the accused were putting up. Further probe revealed that four of them were living here illegally as their visas had expired. |
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Child drowns in ditch
Bhiwani, July 15 The child drowned in the ditch full of water in Buwani Khera here, the police said. The police is probing the matter. Despite orders from the higher-ups, the authorites have failed to cover borewells and open drains to prevent such mishaps. On July 12, four-year-old Sunny died after falling into an open drain while playing
outside his school in the Vasundra area of Ghaziabad. On June 24, the body
of four-year-old Mahi was pulled out of a borewell near Manesar in Haryana. A week later on July 1, a one-and-a-half-year-old boy fell into a 20-foot-deep pit near Palam Vihar on the outskirts of Delhi in the state. However, he was rescued.
— PTI |
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Diarrhoea claims 3 lives
Yamunanagar, July 15
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The condition of Gorakhpur farmer Badloo, who attempted to commit suicide by taking poison on Friday for fear of losing his land to the nuclear power project, continued to be critical today.
Rohtak, July 15