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Massive turnout greets Hooda at Kosli
Haryana first to announce media policy
Bhiwani checked female foeticide
5-point agenda to tackle social indices
IEA failed to ‘rope in’
noted economists
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‘Interaction must between
policymakers, economists’
Pesticide shop sealed
Farmers stall auctioning of land, stage dharna
Yoga contest concludes
Doctor killed in accident
Held for graft
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Massive turnout greets Hooda at Kosli
Rewari, December 30 While the impressive turn out as well as public enthusiasm belied opposition leaders' criticism that people were rapidly getting disenchanted with the Hooda government, Dr Ram Prakash, working president of the HPCC, described it as a 'maha rally' whereas Deepender Singh Hooda, MP and son of Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, exuberantly claimed that it had excelled even Adampur constituency's historic vikas rally held at Balsamand recently. It was the Chief Minister's 39th Vikas Rally in a row. In his keynote address, the Chief Minister touched upon three vital issues of canal water, power and the law and order situation in the state. He said to achieve the long-standing requirement of equitable distribution of available canal water, his government, at the very outset, had decided to construct the Hansi-Butana Link canal at a cost of Rs 260 crore as well as the Dadupur-Nalwi canal at a cost of Rs 270 crore. Mr Hooda categorically announced amidst thunderous applause that in spite of the antagonistic approach of opposition leaders of the state, the Hansi-Butana link canal would be completed in 2007 at all costs. He also explained that it would fetch 2000 cusecs of water from the Bhakra main line canal, a major portion of which would go to south Haryana. Similarly, the Dadupur-Nalwi canal would benefit the Ambala, Karnal and Kurukshetra areas, he added. Dilating upon the power crisis being faced by the people of the state, Mr Hooda said the availability of power stood at 4000 MW whereas the total requirement was about 9000 MW. He reiterated his government's resolve to generate 5000 MW of power in the coming three and a half years after which all villages in the state would be getting a minimum of 20 hour power supply daily. To the delight of the massive crowd, the Chief Minister also announced that two power plants of 1500 MW and 1200 MW, respectively, would be installed in south Haryana. Besides a nuclear power plant would also be installed in Fatehabad district. Making mention of the law and order situation, which he said was a
prerequisite for development works, the Chief Minister asserted that owing to stringent action initiated by his government, many of the criminals had quit the state while many more had been put behind the bars. He reiterated his government's determination that criminals would not be allowed to stay in Haryana. In response to certain demands raised by Salhawas MLA Anita Yadav as well as his son the Chief Minister announced that a 50-bed hospital would be set up at Kosli while one ITI (Industrial Training Institute) would be established each at Kosli, Matanhale and Salhawas. Besides, a sewerage system would be set up at Kosli and Bhakli villages at a cost of Rs 8.50 crore while a canal rest house would be built in the Kosli region. Simultaneously, Haryana Roadways would launch its Kosli-Delhi service from tomorrow while Nahar would be developed into a model village. |
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Haryana first to announce media policy
Chandigarh, December 30 The highlights of the media policy are the creation of a "Patrakar Kalyan Kosh" with Rs 50 lakh as the state government's contribution, allotment of plots by the Haryana Urban Development
Authority (HUDA) for group housing societies of journalists, enhancement of insurance cover from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh and liberal accreditation policy for those working on contractual basis and representatives of the electronic media. He said in view of the changing media scenario, those working on contractual basis would also be eligible for accreditation. For the first time, representatives of evening newspapers and weekly newspapers being published from Haryana would also get accreditation. He said as per the new rules, three correspondents and two photographers from a newspaper would get accreditation at the state headquarters. At the district headquarters, two correspondents and one photographer would be granted accreditation, whereas earlier only one correspondent used to be given accreditation at the district headquarters. He said in Delhi, now two representatives of a newspaper or agency would be given accreditation and one of them might be a photographer. Earlier, there was no policy of granting accreditation in the national Capital. Mr Hooda said for the first time the representatives of electronic media would be given accreditation at the district headquarters and Delhi. It has also been decided to do away with the system of police verification for granting accreditation to a journalist. The limit of free-travel facility in Haryana Roadways buses for accredited journalists would be increased from 2500 km to 4000 km per year and in case of desk journalists it would be 2500 km per year instead of 1500 km earlier. He said more awards named after prominent journalists like Babu Balmukund Gupt would be instituted to encourage journalists. When asked to what was the significant achievement of his government in 2006, Mr Hooda said things had started moving forwards to make Haryana number one state in all spheres of development in the country. He said once someone asked him what was the difference between HUDA and "Hooda".
His reply was that while HUDA was an agency for urban development, “Hooda" stood for "Haryana Overall Development Authority". |
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Flashback 2006Bhiwani checked female foeticide Our Correspondent
Bhiwani, December 30 In its preliminary exercise, Mr Kumar directed the administrative and Red Cross functionaries to inspire youth to fight against female foeticide. More than 10,000 students from various schools raised slogan ‘Beti Bachao, Bhrun Hatya Mitao’ (Save girl, curb female foeticide) through a rally launched from the local HUDA park. It passed through all villages of the district. Mr Kumar, his wife Dr Shashi Kalia, chairperson, Hospital Welfare Society, administered oath against ‘female-foeticide’ to 5,000 students at Siwani subdivision on July 26. The Red Cross society organised rallies under ‘Beti bachao abhiyan’ at 100 villages, including Bapora, Charkhi Dadri, Tosham, Chang, Tigrana, Kharak, Bond, Charkhi, Dinod, Behal, Loharu, Badwa, Mittathal, Bamla and Ranila. About 1 lakh women pledged to fight against female foeticide. A special brigade of over 3,000 women and over 10,000 youths was formed during this period which educated people against these social evils by going from one house to another at their respective villages. The Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was here to address panchayat representatives on August 20, rose to administer oath against female foeticide to 10,000 panchs and sarpanches, social organisations, youth clubs, anganwadi workers and schoolchildren from different schools. All seven MLAs of the district and working president of state Congress Ram Prakash had also taken oath against female foeticide in this function. The Governor, Dr A.R. Kidwai, who also the state chairman of Red Cross, visited the town on May 8. He went to the Red Cross Bhawan and administered oath of ‘Beti Bachao’ to over 5,000 persons and life members of the society. The Deputy Commissioner gave away National Saving Certificates (NSC) worth Rs 3.50 lakh to daughters, grand daughters of Kargil martyrs through the Red Cross society. Girls excelling in art, culture, education and games were given Rs 3 lakh as prizes. In recent days, girl students having no parents or single parent and studying in government schools were given woollen sweaters and blankets by Mr Kumar to strengthen the ‘Beti bachao movement’. Girl students, Monika and Priyanka of Buwani Khera, educated people on female foeticide. The Red Cross society honoured them with a cash prize of Rs 51,000. Artistes from Charkhi Dadri and Siwani were also honoured by the district administration in this regard.
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5-point agenda to tackle social indices
Chandigarh, December 30 The blueprint of the strategy entails improving the sex ratio, universalising elementary education, managing health and nutrition, economically empowering the women and centrally funding social welfare schemes for the benefit of the old-age population, the handicapped and children. While the government does have various agencies operating at different levels to handle these diverse subjects, presently there has been a lack of concerted effort to give a final push for ushering in change of social indices for the better. The agenda plans to do just that by bringing variegated agencies on one platform to enable a comprehensive response. This scheme, formulated at the instance of the Haryana Governor, Dr AR Kidwai, and the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will be implemented under the stewardship of Deputy Commissioners in the 20 districts of the state comprising members drawn from numerous departments. These committees will meet regularly and initiate and monitor projects while the Divisional Commissioners have been entrusted with the task of reviewing progress on a quarterly basis. "We have emphasised that the DCs' personal leadership is necessary to run highly effective public campaigns as also for framing a comprehensive social sector strategy. With the district agencies working under him, they can be the perfect catalysts in this process requiring perfect cohesion in the gameplan and uni-directional focussed inter-departmental working," says Ms Anuradha Gupta, Secretary, Department of Woman and Child Development, Haryana. The strategy lists out the importance to mobilise the public and launch an aggressive campaign to create public awareness while holding that dropouts, especially among girls from weaker sections, and absence of quality are some of the serious concerns. Maintaining that sanitation and prevention of AIDS and substance abuse are among the matters that need immediate focus.
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IEA failed to ‘rope in’
noted economists
Kurukshetra, December 30 “The association which had economists like Dr Manmohan Singh and Dr Amartya
Sen, Nobel Laureate, as it's past presidents, had completely failed to rope in the any noted economist,” the delegates rued. On the concluding day discussions on the 11th Planning Commission’s report was
organised. However, only one panelist out of the six turned up for discussion. Though the organisers ‘managed’ to hold a panel discussion but participants showed resentment over the poorly organised event. As the session started 45 minutes after the slated time of 9.45 a.m., speakers were directed to sum up their comments in seven minutes. Due to the lack of coordination university authorities failed to brief mediapersons on various sessions. Though the university had formed a committee in this regard but its Public Relations Department showed its inability in providing information about the conference. Even names of the speakers were not available with the PRO. Several delegates commented on poor arrangements, including the absence of signboards that caused much inconveniences to them. A senior faculty member invited to the conference charged the organisers for entertaining VIPs guests and not paying any attention towards fruitful discussions. Meanwhile, speaking on the occasion Prof Rudra Dutt insisted on the need to change the definition of poverty. He said the 11th plan document does not suggest any concrete road map to augment employment and its conditions especially in the unorganised sector offering jobs to the 93 per cent population. Prof
K.S. Chalam, UPSC member, lamented a lobby of economists for making superficial claims on poverty eradication. He said the inexperienced workforce that lost their jobs due to the changing market scenario was opting for agriculture. |
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‘Interaction must between
policymakers, economists’
Kurukshetra, December 30 In an exclusive chat with this correspondent last night, Professor Bhattacharya said he would Professor Bhattacharya, who had extensively worked on econometric modelling and forecasting said efforts would be made to bring IEA on the international platform. He pointed out that there was a need to exploit Indian economists’ potential. He said the IEA would work positively on giving suggestions and guidance to the centre and states on various economic policies. The IEA president said the educational system needs an overhauling to tackle unemployment problem. Due to faulty education system, rural youth were being denied exposure to the modern-day avenues. He also laid stress on the need for revamping the agricultural sector. On the SEZ issue, he opined that such concept was not required in India. Under the garb of tax-relaxations such concepts had shown miserable results in the past where the motives of the investors restricted to the tax
benefits. |
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Pesticide shop sealed
Kaithal, December 30 The affected farmer approached agricultural scientists at the local Krishi Vigyan Kendra. Dr Rajinder Singh Sheokand, Dr Romesh
Verma, Harish Singh and the SDO (Agriculture) inspected the farm and came to a conclusion that the crop was destroyed as a result of spraying of the weedicide. The team submitted its report to the Deputy
Director (Agriculture), Kaithal, who got the shop sealed. Dr Mahavir Singh, DDA, said if any irregularity was found in weedicide’s sale the licence of that shop would be cancelled. On the other hand, the shopkeeper said he had sold the company-supplied sealed pack of weedicide and would try to persuade the company to compensate the farmer. |
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Farmers stall auctioning of land, stage dharna
Sirsa, December 30 The incensed farmers also staged a protest dharna in front of the office of the Sirsa Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank in the village on Thursday and raised slogans against the bank and the administration. Fearing repercussions, the bank officials and those who had assembled to offer bids for the land, thought it better to postpone the auction process. Gorakhpuria declared that under no circumstances the farmers would allow the bank officials or anyone else to auction poor farmer’s land and deprive them of the only means of their subsistence. Ram Kumar had taken a loan of Rs 1.5 lakh from the bank for installing a tubewell and also for purchasing sheep. He failed to repay the loan in time and the bank decided to auction his meager holding. — PTI
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Yoga contest concludes
Ambala, December 30 Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ambala, Mr Mukesh Ahuja, was the chief guest. Mr Ahuja said there is a growing awareness among people about the benefits of yoga. He said yoga helps in maintaining physical as well as mental fitness. Boys: 8-11 years: Vikas first, Sunny second and Manish third. 11-14 years: Ankit first, Gaurav second and Ronu third. 14-17 years: Pradeep first, Ajeet second and Siddharth third. 17-21 years: Beerbhan first, Subhash second and Manoj third. Girls: 8-11 years: Rinu first, Bhagyawati second and Pooja was third. 11-14 years: Garima first, Anjali second and Sonam third. 14-17 years: Arti first, Kiran second and Bharti third. 17-21 years: Geeta first, Jyoti second and Geeta third. |
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Doctor killed in accident
Ambala, December 30 Dr Rajinder Bhatti was travelling alongwith four others in an auto-rickshaw from
Ambala City to Ambala Cantt. The auto-rickshaw collided with a truck near Jandli bridge. While Dr Bhatti died on the spot, four others, including the auto-rickshaw driver sustained serious injuries. The injured have been referred to the PGI Chandigarh. |
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Held for graft
Yamunanagar, December 30 Mr Raghuvir Singh of Hiranchappar village had complained to the bureau that Ram Kumar Saini, a clerk posted at the Community Health Centre, Radaur, was demanding Rs 800 for issuing a birth certificate of his son. Earlier, he had paid Rs 500 to him. A trap was laid and Mr Raghuvir gave Rs 300 to the clerk who was arrested by sleuths.
— TNS
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With a massive turnout, which defied all speculations as well as expectations, Salhawas constituency's Vikas Rally at Kosli today turned out to be a historic rally in all respects.
