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Drought: State unveils contingency plan to mitigate farmers’ suffering
Crying for power and water, villagers vent ire on powerhouse
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Team Anna’s plan not clear: Chautala
HJC welcomes Team Anna’s move to join politics
Crop
loss Due to deficit Rains
Teacher suspended for ‘eveteasing’
New directives to receive CM, ministers on tour
Rs 1-cr award for Saina
Bodies of 4 drowned youths fished out
Dealers resent poor quality petrol
Video-conferencing of undertrials on cards
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Drought: State unveils contingency plan to mitigate farmers’ suffering
Chandigarh, August 4 The contingency plan has been finalised on the recommendation of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar, and will serve an advisory to farmers both for the areas where the crops have been sown and the leftover areas where these are yet to be sown, said BS Duggal, Additional Director (Agriculture). With overall rainfall deficiency pegged at 74 per cent from June 1 to August 4, the district-wise rainfall deficiency varies from 33 per cent in Gurgaon to 93 per cent in Kaithal. In fact, the total cropped area is about 22.76 lakh hectares as against the target of 29.76 lakh hectares, leaving about 7 lakh hectares as the area still to be sown, officials said. The highly deficient rainfall has already taken its toll on the sowing of kharif crops in the state. As against a target of 6 lakh hectares, only 2.15 lakh hectares (35 per cent) could be covered under bajra. Similarly, jawar could be sown on an area of 0.60 lakh hectares against a target of 0.80 lakh hectares. The percentage of area covered under other crops was cotton (87 per cent), paddy (82 per cent), maize (47 per cent), summer moong (60 per cent), pulses (38 per cent), oilseeds (40 per cent) and guar (60 per cent), sources said.
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Crying for power and water, villagers vent ire on powerhouse
Sirsa, August 4 The villagers smashed the windowpanes of the office, threw away its furniture and manhandled a shift attendant, who was on duty. Over 50 villagers from Natar went to the 33-KV power substation at Shahidanwali and started raising slogans against the authorities, alleging poor supply of power to their village. Some youths smashed the windowpanes and threw some furniture of the office. Rajminder Singh, an official, alleged in his complaint to the DHBVN authorities that the villagers manhandled the officials, when they tried to stop them from the rampage. The villagers, who alleged that they had been getting power for hardly one hour a day, tried to disrupt the supply from the powerhouse, but villagers from Shahidanwali and the police reached there and the protesters escaped. In another case, farmers from four villages today met Deputy Commissioner J. Ganesan with complaints of poor supply of canal water for irrigation. Om Parkash Jakhar, sarpanch from Bharokha, Bhupinder Singh, sarpanch from Baruwali, Madan Lal, husband of woman sarpanch from Bharokhawali, and several villagers from Darbi village alleged that some villagers had been stealing water with the connivance of the irrigation department, much to the detriment of honest farmers. |
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Team Anna’s plan not clear: Chautala
Sirsa, August 4 Chautala said people had been still wondering as to why Team Anna started its agitation this time and what prompted them to call off their fast at Jantar Mantar. “Anna Hazare never got tired of calling all politicians, including the ministers and the MPs, corrupt. But now, his team has been calling upon politicians feeling suffocated in their respective parties to join their bandwagon,” Chautala said referring to a statement by Team Anna member, Arvind Kejriwal, while announcing the team’s plans to take a plunge into politics. When asked what impact Team Anna’s entry will have on the political arena of the country, Chautala said, “Wait and watch. They do not seem to be clear about what they want to do as Kejriwal has announced that the name of the party will be decided by the people and even candidates will be chosen by the people,” he said. “Now, which people will decide the name and candidates and how, only Team Anna can tell,” he added. Castigating the Haryana Government for cases of exploitation of inmates in shelter homes at Rohtak, Karnal and other places, Chautala said it was strange that the two MLAs whose names the CBI had revealed as being Jaswanti’s benefactors have not been proceeded against so far. Accusing the Hooda government of being indifferent to the sufferings of farmers facing drought all over the state, Chautala alleged that while several states had demanded relief from the Centre, the Haryana Government had yet not done anything in this direction. Reiterating his oft-repeated allegation of regional bias against Hooda, Chautala said the state government’s attitude was apathetic on this issue because Bhiwani, Hisar, Jind, Sirsa and Fatehabad districts were the most-affected districts due to shortfall of rains, which, he alleged, were not on priority for the Chief Minister. He said due to corruption, the purchase of equipment for power project, all electricity generation plants set up during the Hooda regime were lying defunct. Coming down both on the Congress and the BJP at the Centre, Chautala predicted that none of these parties would be able to reach three-figure mark in the number of seats in the next parliamentary elections and said the regional parties would emerge winners in all states.
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HJC welcomes Team Anna’s move to join politics
Ambala, August 4 He said since its inception, the HJC had been campaigning against corrupt political practices and supporting clean and fair politics. He added that if the HJC-BJP alliance comes to power, it would provide public-welfare government to the people of Haryana. Addressing the workers of the two parties, he said the Congress had become a symbol of corruption and people wanted to get rid of it. He said the incident of Apna Ghar in which the involvement of three MLAs of the ruling party cropped up recently had badly affected the image of the state. He also criticised INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala. He further called upon the workers to strengthen the alliance to defeat
the Congress and the INLD in the forthcoming elections. Haryana BJP chief Krishan Pal Gujjar, while addressing the workers’ meeting, said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had promised to provide round-the-clock power to people but failed to keep his promise. He said the Prime minister had also announced to check the price hike and corruption in a similar fashion but to no avail. Senior BJP leader Ram Bilas Sharma said Kuldeep Bishnoi was the would-be Chief Minister of the state. Sharma said the law and order situation had become worst in the state and the common man felt unsecure during the present Congress government. Former MP Rattan Lal Kataria and former MLAs Dharm Pal Malik, Faquir Chand Aggarwal, Jasbir Mallour, Veena Chibbar and Raj Kumar Saini also spoke on the occasion. |
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Crop loss Due to deficit Rains Tribune News Service
Fatehabad, August 4 The minister, who was here to inaugurate lawyers’ chambers in the district court complex, said the state government had already sought 1,000 MW additional power from the Centre to meet farmers’ requirement and it would ask for central relief once the exact loss of crops was known. Paramvir Singh said the rain deficit had created problems for farmers, though, he maintained that there was no drought as such. He said the government was providing enough irrigation water and electricity to farmers, so that the shortfall of rains did not affect their crops much. He said some land had remained unsown in Haryana due to lack of rains and added that the exact loss would be known only after the government received the reports. The minister said the Agriculture Department would send its reports to the Revenue Department, who will in turn prepare a final report to assess the loss. Earlier, addressing lawyers, the minister urged them to play a positive role in providing justice to the poor.
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Teacher suspended for ‘eveteasing’
Karnal, August 4 He was placed under suspension by the Director of Education, Anurag Dalmia, on the basis of a written complaint given by three girls on July 30. Soon, principal Vinod Sharma constituted a seven-member committee, which found Saini guilty. The report was sent to the District Elementary Education Officer, Uday Pratap Singh, who recommended his suspension. Acting on the recommendation, the Director placed him under suspension. Saini has remained controversial wherever he has worked and earlier also several complaints were made against him. He was posted in the same school earlier also, but later went on deputation. He was posted again here following the orders of the chief to recall all teachers on deputation and posted them at their original place of posting. “It is a serious matter and strict action will be taken against the said teacher in case the complaint against him was found to be true,” said an official.
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New directives to receive CM, ministers on tour
Chandigarh, August 4 As per a government circular, which is addressed to all the Heads of Department, Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Managing Directors of Boards and Corporations and Registrars of all the universities, the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police and all heads of offices posted in the district would receive the Chief Minister at the Rest House whenever he pays his first visit to the district. On subsequent visits of the Chief Minister, only the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police of the district concerned would receive him along with such of the heads of offices as are specifically required with respect to the purpose of the visit. The Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police and heads of offices posted in the district will receive and call on the Speaker, Ministers, Deputy Speaker, Ministers of State, Deputy Minister at the Rest House on their first visit to the district headquarters and on their subsequent visits, only the District Heads and those officers of other departments who are specifically asked for by the Speaker, Ministers, Deputy Speaker, Ministers of State or Deputy Ministers should be present. In case of visit of a Cabinet Minister, the Sub-Divisional Magistrate or Deputy Superintendent of Police will not be required to accompany the minister. Only the officers of the department under the control of the minister should accompany him as required by the minister. The officers have been directed to comply with these instructions meticulously.
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Rs 1-cr award for Saina
Chandigarh, August 4 She hails from Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, and is the second player of Haryana to win a medal in the Olympics. Earlier, ace shooter Gagan Narang had won a bronze and brought laurels to the state and the country. |
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Bodies of 4 drowned youths fished out
Sonepat, August 4 Shiv Kumar’s body was taken out last evening. —
OC |
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Dealers resent poor quality petrol
Kaithal, August 4 In a press conference held here, the dealers said there were reports of breakdown of vehicles after refilling due to the poor quality of petrol. The dealers said vehicles did not start properly and on thorough checking it was found out that some sticky substance that appeared on valves had adverse effect on the functioning of engine which was responsible for the breakdown. One of the dealers said that service engineers of manufacturing companies were consulted on the issue who pointed towards an excessive mixing of ethanol and neptha in petrol by the oil companies due to which the fuel got sticky. The dealers further said the officials of the petroleum companies refused to say anything on the issue. However, they said one official on condition of anonymity confirmed certain shortcomings in the quality of petrol supplied from the Panipat refinery and efforts were on to solve the problem. The dealers also urged the government to probe the supply of poor quality petrol.
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Video-conferencing of undertrials on cards
Chandigarh, August 4 In a letter to the Commissioners of Police and Superintendents of Police (SPs), the police top brass has asked them to explore the possibility of the same with the District and Sessions judges in the state. The video-conferencing is available to hearing judicial remand matters in a few cases only. Sources said this will facilitate speedy trials since such criminals would not have to be produced physically in court for cross-examination with armed escorts which sometimes leads to delays in hearing. Sources said that video-conferencing comes with multi-pronged advantages which also include preventing any untoward incidents when a criminal is physically produced in court. Officials said that whenever a notorious criminal is produced in court, there is always an apprehension of an attack either to kill or get him freed. This not only endangers the life of the accused but also the police personnel escorting. Furthermore, it leads to wastage of manpower which the department falls short most of the times. “With notorious criminals, we can’t leave any chance. An escort of two to 10 police personnel is necessary depending on who is being produced. If video-conferencing is started, this manpower can be used elsewhere and cross-examination can happen in the safe confines of the jail itself,” an official said. When dreaded criminals are produced in court, there is always a chance that they may escape despite the presence of the escort. This provides the criminal an opportunity to escape and also puts the life of the police personnel under threat. “In addition to all these factors, transporting the accused back and forth involves expenditure on vehicles, fuel and other things. Video-conferencing will also save the overburdened courts from a lot of hassle,” the official said. |
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With the monsoon playing truant, villagers have started losing their temper for power and irrigation water to save their crops from withering away.
