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Vagaries of weather cut wheat yield substantially
Delay in procurement
Dalits oppressed as upper castes still feudal: Punia
Canal water supply project fails to take off
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Woman reader not made Dean despite seniority
BJP, HJC not to contest MC poll on party symbol
Girl commits suicide in Hisar
Man ends life; wife booked
Bomb blast victim's father ends fast
Newly wed man, mother shot, wife kidnapped
Youth gets three years in jail for molesting minor
7 held for betting on cricket match
263 students conferred degrees
Norms for recognition of minority educational institutions
HC nod not must for tax tribunal members’ selection
Zero-cut scheme for villages that shift meters
State to have medical services Corpn
UHBVN to clear pending cases
Record jump in excise revenue, says Kiran Choudhry
Non-degree holder architects debarred from making building plans
INLD strong, says Abhay
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Vagaries of weather cut wheat yield substantially
Yamunanagar, April 18 Farmers say that repeated showers coupled with strong winds which hit the standing crop in the region had led to the shedding of seeds in ripe crops, which reduced the yield drastically. Many farmers in the two districts rued that they were not even able to break even as the high input cost and low yield had dented their financial prospects to a great extent. Narinder Singh, a farmer from Adu Majra village, said last year the local cultivators had yielded around 20 quintals of wheat per acre of land. However, this time, they could reap only 10 to 12 quintals of wheat. Bakshish Singh, another farmer of Jagoli village, said there were some farmers who could collect only 7 to 8 quintals of wheat this year as compared to more than 18 quintals of wheat per acre last year. He said the strong winds uprooted the wheat plant, reducing the yield. Farmers in Toba, Dhurala, Patrehari, Kesri and several other villages surrounding the Nagal segment of Ambala district, said their fields were affected by problem of waterlogging and they had raised this matter with the authorities concerned before the sowing season started. They had demanded that arrangements for proper discharge of rainwater from their fields be made so that in case of showers, the crop was not affected due to waterlogging. However, no measures were initiated and when it rained last month, the fields got waterlogged and the crop suffered damage. The crops in several villages of the two districts had also come under the threat from yellow rust which also affected the yield. The distress in the crop yield can also be seen in the major grain markets of the two districts, where the farmers are turning up with fewer yields as compared to last year. The decline in the crop yield has also drawn worry line on the faces of local commission agents, who now fear that the farmers would not be able to return advances sought by them before the sowing season. Pritam Pal, a local commission agent, said most of the farmers were unable to pay back the advances that they had taken. In such a situation, the commission agents would not be able to provide the farmers with any advance to sow paddy in the upcoming months.
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Delay in procurement
Fatehabad, April 18 “The government has been claiming that they had started procurement operations in Haryana from April 1. However, we have been sitting in the grain market with our crops for the past five days and still there is no sign of purchase of our wheat,” alleged farmers, including Nand Lal, Sohan Lal Bajaj, Dalip Kathuria, Surinder Legha and Laxmi Narain. The agitators parked tractor trolleys in a zigzag manner on the highway and blocked traffic for over two hours. Dharna staged Sirsa: Grain market traders in Sirsa boycotted the procurement of wheat and sat on a dharna outside the gate of the market committee here today. “The authorities had assured us that lifting of the procured stocks would be ensured within 72 hours. However, out of the 1.45 quintals of wheat that has arrived here in the past three days, merely 90,00 quintals have been lifted,” alleged Surinder Minchanabadi, president of the Sirsa Grain Market Traders’ Association.
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Dalits oppressed as upper castes still feudal: Punia
Karnal/Kaithal, April 18 “The upper castes have not changed their feudal mindset and they are not ready to reconcile with the emerging socio-economic scenario and participation of lower castes in politics and process of social-economic transformation and using violence and atrocities as instruments to suppress the lower castes,” educated elders among Dalits have observed. Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes PL Punia has agreed that the upper classes are intolerable to the development of lower classes, resulting in frequent clashes and change in orthodox mindset was a must to ensure social harmony in rural areas of the state. There has been a discernible change in the mindset of people in urban areas and obviously organised caste violence was much less, but in rural areas caste bias was still a dominant factor to determine the social status. Punia said the father of a girl named Meena said he was unconcerned for the couple and his concern now was how to get his two daughters married in his own caste, as the eldest daughter had taken such an extreme step. The worry and anxiety expressed by the father of the girl is indicative of the strong caste barriers that still exist in rural areas and the social pressure that the affected families have to bear. “In most of the cases, the parents and community members are compelled to take retaliatory steps to prove to the community that they don’t approve of the action of their wards and ensure their survival and the same mentality is responsible for heinous crimes like honour killing,” said Punia. In most of the honour killing cases, the family abides by the diktat of powerful community leaders and kills their loved ones just to restore honour of the family. “The comment “Chamar Jamai ban gaya” is more painful than killing the loved ones,” said Mohan, an engineer hailing from the lower class and a victim of attack in Pabnawa village. The problem is not only of law and order but of the mindset of the people, as politicians and even bureaucrats and men in uniform suffer from caste bias. It plays a crucial role in elections and parties choose candidates keeping in view the caste combinations and also woo the dominant castes to derive electoral mileage.
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Canal water supply project fails to take off
Jind, April 18 A majority of the water supply in the city and parts of the rural areas is based primarily on tubewells and harnessing groundwater, though a fresh water canal passes through this historic town. "The water which we get for drinking is not only salty but also hard. A majority of the households here have installed RO or water purifiers to make the water potable,’’ says Sandeep Malik, a resident of Urban Estate, here. He said both the hardness and fluoride content were higher than the permissible levels, resulting in risk to the health of the consumers and damage to household articles which get rusted very quickly due to the fluorides. Karan Dev Shastri of Housing Board Colony claimed that hardness of water was an issue of concern and nothing had been done to rectify it. Sat Narayan Goyal of Scheme Number 19, a posh residential area, said the problem had forced the households to install RO systems as the water was causing health disorders. The problem of intermittent supply and hardness in water has forced many residents to get submersible water pumps, said Mahender, a resident of Intel Kalan village. Total dissolved solids (TDS) are the total amount of mobile charged ions, including minerals, salts or metals dissolved in a given volume of water, expressed in units of mg per unit volume of water (mg/L), also referred to as parts per million (ppm). TDS is directly related to the purity of water and the quality of water purification systems and affects everything that consumes, lives in, or uses water, whether organic or inorganic, whether for better or for worse. Recently several persons fell victim to hepatitis-B in Durrana village due to contaminated water supply. Dalbir Singh Dalal, executive engineer of the Public Health Department, admitted that the proposal of providing canal-based water supply system had been taken up several years ago, but due to unavailability of land, it could not take off. He said the TDS of water in the city was between 500 and 1200 ppm. He said though it was within the permissible limit, it was hard in taste. He said the water supply in the city and majority of the villages was satisfactory and the department had got no complaint in this regard.
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Woman reader not made Dean despite seniority
Sirsa, April 18 The university has not only denied Dr Monika Verma her due despite three different legal opinions justifying her case, but has also used different yardsticks in her case and in the case of a male reader, who has been recently elevated to the post of Dean, faculty of social sciences, despite his case being exactly identical to hers. The treatment meted out to Dr Verma has not only sent across a message that the university discriminates between its teachers on the basis of their gender, but also it gives credence to an allegation that those belonging to a particular caste manage to twist rules, university sources say. Dr Verma has been fighting for her right ever since the university appointed a reader junior to her as Dean, faculty of education, ignoring her legitimate claim on August 7, 2012. The woman teacher saw a ray of hope when on March 11, 2013, Vice-Chancellor ML Ranga, after a legal opinion, favoured her case strongly and decided to take up her case at the meeting of the executive council (EC) and issues instructions for its listing in the agenda items. However, her case was not placed in the agenda of the meeting of the EC held on March 30, leaving Dr Verma high and dry. Earlier, the university obtained two separate legal opinions from a single advocate in June and August 2012. Though the legal opinion that came in June 2012 strongly advocated Dr Verma’s elevation on the ground of her seniority and having earlier served an incomplete term in 2007, the university did not elevate her and sought another opinion from the same person. This time, while admitting her seniority and the right, the university’s legal adviser said since she had not objected to her removal without the completion of her term in 2007, the right to the post went to the person next in seniority. However, the university twisted this rule again on April 10, 2013, when it appointed a reader as Dean, faculty of social cciences, though he too had earlier served an incomplete term in office, as was the case of Dr Verma. The registrar, Dr Manoj Siwach, said Dr Verma’s case was not placed in the agenda of the EC meeting this time because only issues relating to the budget and other important issues were taken up on March 30.
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BJP, HJC not to contest MC poll on party symbol
Chandigarh, April 18 This was decided in principle at a meeting of the coordination committee of the two parties held in a five-star hotel of Delhi today. However, an official announcement in this regard would be made only after the elections are announced officially, sources say. The elections are to be held for the municipal corporations of Panchkula, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Karnal, Rohtak and Hisar. So far, the BJP has been contesting the civic elections on its symbol. The meeting was convened today to discuss, among other things, the municipal elections. Certain BJP leaders were of the view that the two parties had agreed to contest the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in an alliance, which does not extend to the municipal elections. However, there was another view that if the two parties contested the municipal elections separately, it would send a wrong message. The sources say that it was agreed at the meeting that the BJP and HJC should also contest the municipal elections together. When the issue of contesting the elections on party symbols came up for discussion, it is learnt that HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi opposed the idea. He said his father Bhajan Lal was never in favour of contesting the civic elections on party symbols because these elections were not contested on ideology. Rather, local and petty issues mattered more than the party ideology in the civic poll. Then it was decided that both parties should not contest the civic elections on their symbol. Those party activists, who wanted to contest the civic elections, should be left free to fend for themselves. However, sources in the BJP say that the party would definitely select its candidates for the civic poll, though they may not contest on the party symbol. The two parties would decide the issue of seat-sharing in the civic elections only after the announcement of the poll. The two parties decided to jointly launch a public contact programme from May 15 to June 16.
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Girl commits suicide in Hisar
Hisar, April 18 When she did not return home for over an hour, her mother tried to contact her on her mobile, but it was switched off. Later, when her mother went on the first floor of the house, she found her daughter hanging from the ceiling. The family members immediately took her to a local hospital, where she was declared brought dead. According to family sources, the girl had completed her B.Tech from a private institute in the state and had recently been recruited for a nationalised bank. The girl, according to the sources, was to join her duties at Manesar on April 27. The sources said the family was looking for a bridegroom for the girl. —TNS
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Man ends life; wife booked
Rewari, April 18 While Rajiv's body was fished out from a village pond this morning, the suicide note stated that he was ending his life owing to his wife's "aggressive ways". Anju, who got married to Rajiv over two years ago, bore him a son, who is seven-month old. A senior police official said that Anju, who became unconscious after learning that her husband had ended his life by jumping into the village pond, was hospitalised here last evening. |
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Bomb blast victim's father ends fast
Ambala, April 18 Naib tehsildar offered him a glass of juice and asked him to end his fast. Later, while talking to mediapersons, Jindal said it was the victory of humanity and justice. He said families of the blast victims had got a big relief. said he would soon visit Pune and contact the aggrieved families to launch a joint protest so that the remaining accused was be panelised. |
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Newly wed man, mother shot, wife kidnapped
Sonepat, April 18 The gangsters then allegedly kidnapped Sandeep’s wife Sarita and sped in the same car bearing a Chandigarh registration number. The police is reported to have recovered a uniform of the Chandigarh police from the spot and a case has been registered against Basant, a Chandigarh police employee of Gorar village. Sandeep was married to Sarita, a resident of Gorar and at present residing with her maternal uncle here in the industrial area, on April 15. A love affair is suspected to be the cause of the crime. |
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Youth gets three years in jail for molesting minor
Fatehabad, April 18 Additional District and Sessions Judge LN Jindal today awarded three-year imprisonment to Rinku for outraging the modesty of a 9-year-old girl at Ratia on March 10, 2013. A woman, who worked as a labourer, had lodged a complaint with the police that her 9-year-old niece had come to live with her for some days. She alleged that on March 10, she had gone to see a neighbour and when she came back, she found her niece missing. Another child told her that Rinku had taken the girl to a nearby hut. When she went there, she found that Rinku had torn the girl’s clothes and he was trying to rape her. The accused ran away after noticing the girl’s aunt. The police later arrested Rinku under Section 354 and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. While delivering the judgment today, Jindal sentenced Rinku to an imprisonment for three years and fine of Rs 5,000 for the offence. 7-yr jail in
rape case
Karnal: Additional Sessions Judge D K Mittal today convicted Sukhwinder of Barnakhala village of raping a minor and sentenced him to seven years' imprisonment. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict. The case dates back to February 17, 2012, when the accused sexually assaulted the VIIIth standard girl . The accused was arrested on February 19, 2012. Rapist gets 10-yr imprisonment
Hisar: Additional District and Sessions Judge Madhu Khanna Lalli today sentenced a dumper driver to 10-year imprisonment for raping a seven-year-old girl seven years ago. The accused, Mange Lal, a resident of Shekhupuria village of Sirsa, used to come to the house of the victim for ‘lassi’. On September 28, 2007, the accused inquired the girl about the whereabouts of her father. When she told him that her father had gone to fields, he asked her to show her the way to the fields. The girl did not return home till late in the night. Later, the family found her near a village on the Hisar-Tosham road. |
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7 held for betting on cricket match
Sonepat, April 18 |
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263 students conferred degrees
Kurukshetra, April 18 She said “What society has given to you, you should give it back in the form of imparting education to others with the slogan each one, teach one”. As many as 263 students were conferred degrees at the convocation. She gave away prizes to the winners of various academic, cultural and sports events. The chief guest inaugurated the newly constructed two-storey building costing Rs 1.7 crore on the college campus Arya Shiksha Samiti chairman and Rajya Sabha member Ram Prakash said B.Sc (Non-Medical) and B.Sc (Computer Science) would be introduced in the college under self-finance scheme from the ensuing academic session. The college principal, Dr Vijay Lakshmi Singh, read out the annual report highlighting the academic and cultural achievements of the college. |
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Norms for recognition of minority educational institutions
Chandigarh, April 18 Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the minority status might be accorded to the applicant society if a minimum of two-thirds of the members of the society or trust belonged to the same minority community. At the time of submission of the application, the sponsoring body should be in possession of two acres of land either by way of ownership or on a perpetual irrevocable lease of at least 33 years if proposed land falls within municipal limits and five acres in case the land falls in a rural area. The society or the trust would give an undertaking that the land was meant only for the proposed institution and no other institution would be formed or raised on this land. The society or the trust would undertake that a minimum of 50 per cent students admitted would be from minority communities. All properties, assets and the academic support services shall be required to be recorded in the name of the institution. The minority educational institution will not use its privilege as minority institution for any pecuniary benefit. The minority educational institution shall appoint teachers as per qualifications laid down by the authority concerned and to select teachers and other employees through an open advertisement and as per the conditions of the UGC and the state government. All admissions shall be made on the basis of merit. The competent authority could withdraw the approval or recognition of any minority educational institution in case the instructions, rules and regulations issued from time to time by the affiliating universities or the state government were not abided by the institution.
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HC nod not must for tax tribunal members’ selection
Chandigarh, April 18 Notified on April 1, it only provides for advertising vacancies by putting a notice on the official website. It says all applications will be considered by a search committee before recommending candidates equal to three times the number of the vacancies. The shortlisted names will then be considered by the state government. Information in this regard has been provided to HC Arora, counsel for PIL petitioner Vikas Miglani, in the form of an additional affidavit dated April 2 by the state. The affidavit says the government has notified the procedure it will follow in making appointments in future. On a previous date of hearing, the Bench had observed that in the petition filed in public interest, a challenge had been thrown to the appointments of the chairperson and members of the Tax Tribunal. One of the contentions raised was that the tribunal was subordinate to the high court. Therefore, the chairperson and members could not be appointed without being in consultation with the high court. The Bench had observed that consultations were not carried out before the appointments. Miglani has contended that in May 2011, the CM had initially decided to appoint Justice SL Bhiana as chairperson and Rajender Ballah a member. But within a few days, he changed his mind.
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Zero-cut scheme for villages that shift meters
Chandigarh, April 18 Chairman and Managing Director of the UHBVN and DHBVN Devender Singh said this at a meeting of the operation review committee of the UHBVN here today. As many as 76 villages in the command area of the UHBVN had given consent to scheme in the first phase. Revenue realisation progress, internet-based consumer grievances redress system, feeder-wise indexing of consumers, relocation of meters in urban area, reduction in aggregated technical and commercial losses and monthly score card of employees and officers to assess their work were the major issues discussed at the meeting.
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State to have medical services Corpn
Chandigarh April 18 The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting of the Health Department here today. The corporation would be a fully autonomous body with administrative and financial powers. The aim of this corporation is to ensure the purchase, storage and distribution of drugs, medicines, equipment, their timely supply and technical support. |
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UHBVN to clear pending cases
Chandigarh, April 18 Haryana Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav said here today that about 7,600 applicants of the state would be benefited by the decision. |
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Record jump in excise revenue, says Kiran Choudhry
Chandigarh, April 18 Addressing a press conference here today, Choudhry said the Finance Department had set a target of Rs 23,500 crore for revenue collection for the year 2013-14 . She said that a computer portal and 24-hour helpline would be set up to receive and redress dealers' grievances. The minister said Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation of about Rs 780 crore was received from the Government of India in 2011-12 whereas no such amount was received during 2012-13. After accounting for the CST compensation, the total additional revenue mobilisation amounted to a record Rs.2406 crore As a result of the innovative Excise Policy framed for 2013-14, the licence fee had gone up to Rs.2625 crore in 2013-14 from about Rs 2,100 crore in 2012-13 . |
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Non-degree holder architects debarred from making building plans
Panipat/Karnal, April 18 The registered architects have been preparing the building plans for the past 15 to 30 years. Now, a letter issued on March 12 by the director, urban local bodies, instructs all 76 municipal corporations, municipal councils and municipalities to revise the list of registered architects and renew the registration of only those architects who possess a degree in architecture as per the Haryana municipal bylaws of 1982. The Haryana Registered Architects and Engineers Association has urged the government to withdraw the orders and ensure that no architect be deregistered and the building plans prepared by them are entertained by the urban local bodies. Spokesman of the association PPKapoor said there were about 1,000 diploma-holders who have been registered as architects by municipal bodies, but with the new order, they would be rendered jobless as their building plans would not be entertained by municipal bodies. Kapoor said most of the degree-holder architects were not preparing the building plans for urban local bodies and the general public would be harassed. The actual work would be done by non-degree holders, as before, but the building plans would have to be signed by the degree holder architects, resulting in their exploitation, he feared. Kapoor said the association had submitted a memorandum to the secretary (urban local bodies) and a meeting had been convened for May 13, but the association members were not sure about the intentions of the government. He said similar orders were issued in 2006, but after the association resented and represented to the government, it amended the orders and gave a reprieve to the already registered members by asking the local bodies to allow them to continue. Kapoor said the association wanted the government to see the ground reality and settle the issue by making suitable amendments in the building bylaws and relax the eligibility criteria for non-degree holder architects. He said while on the one hand the government was debarring the non-degree holder architects from submitting building plans, on the other hand those empowered to pass the plans were not degree holder architects but engineers in different trades.
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INLD strong, says Abhay
Karnal, April 18 |
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Angry over the delay in the procurement of wheat, farmers and traders blocked vehicular traffic on the Delhi-Sirsa national highway near Laal Batti Chowk in Fatehabad for over two hours today.
Haryana state child welfare council vice-president Asha Hooda today called upon the students to educate those who are lesser educated.
She was delivering the convocation address at Dayanand Mahila Mahavidyalya here today. She said educated women were the biggest strength of a nation and essential for the development of society.
