Haryana

Hisar, July 22
Teaching posts in Haryana Agricultural University are attracting hundreds of doctorate degree-holders in various disciplines.


The university is recruiting teachers on a mass scale for the first time after the mid-nineties when a ban was imposed on filling vacancies and creating new posts because of a financial crunch.

HAU has invited applications for 80 posts of Assistant Professor and 10 of Associate Professor. With a day still to go before the deadline for receiving applications ends, the university has already sold over 1,000 application forms.

The university had begun to feel the pinch due to the ban on recruitments several years ago as senior teachers superannuated and the juniors were promoted to take their place. This led to an acute shortage of teachers at the Assistant Professor level, affecting teaching and research activities.

The situation had come to such a pass that many offices in the teaching departments had to be locked up as there were no teachers.

Following the lifting of the recruitment ban, the university has also advertised a slew of non-teaching posts which include 45 posts of clerk, 22 of stenographer, 21 of driver and 16 of training assistant. Besides, there is one vacancy of Medical Officer and three of school lecturer.

The recruitment of teachers on this scale will considerably ease unemployment rate among agricultural scientists who had been looking for other jobs due to lack of teaching vacancies.

Chandigarh, July 22
Virender Singh Sehrawat, an HCS officer, posted as the SDM, Gohana, has denied the allegations levelled against him by Vishu Phogat, a Panipat resident.


Phogat met Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on June 17 alleging that Sehrawat attempted to rape her and molested her when she met him in connection with some domestic work.

Seeking a CBI probe into the incident, she alleged that instead of taking action against Sehrawat, the police had booked her for abetment to suicide in the case pertaining to Sehrawat’s wife. A news item in this regard was published in these columns on June 18. Sehrawat, through his counsel, claimed that Vishu met him in 2006 with a request to approach the management of a school for not terminating her services. On his refusal to do so, she started harassing him and his wife on the phone and had been filing false and frivolous complaints against him, alleged Sehrawat.

She had filed a “false complaint” in the Gannaur police station on September 9, 2008, alleging attempt to rape.

The matter was investigated by the police as well as the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Panipat, who found the allegations to be false and baseless, claimed Sehrawat, However, he had already lost his wife and two children due to “continuous harassment” on the part of Vishu, alleged Sehrawat.

He said a case in this regard was registered against Vishu by the Samalkha police and an anticipatory bail application filed by Vishu had been dismissed by a court in Panipat.

Moreover, the parents of Vishu had also requested the ADC, Panipat, not to take any action on the complaint filed by Vishu against him stating that the allegations levelled by Vishu had no basis, he added.

Hisar, July 22

The police resorted to a lathi charge here today to disperse a mob of villagers seeking the arrest of those responsible for firing in the village on July 10.

Residents of Dhani Mohabbatpur village, led by their sarpanch, converged on the mini-secretariat to hand over a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner YS Khiyalia. They wanted the DC to come down to receive their memorandum. The DC sent messages to them to come to his office to hand over the memorandum. The protesters refused to do so. Instead, they went back to Fountain Chowk where they blocked traffic. They ignored police appeal to lift the blockade.

The police then resorted to a mild lathi charge to disperse them and clear the road crossing. On July 10, some miscreants had fired on a victory procession after the panchayat poll. Two women were hit by gunshots and many others were injured. The villagers alleged that though a case under Section 307 of the IPC had been registered, no arrests had been made so far.

Karnal, July 22
Even as unscrupulous agents continue to indulge in human trafficking, luring young girls from poor families with the job bait, two such victims who lost contact with their homes have been traced with the help of an NGO, Pravasi Suraksha Vahini.

Over the years, trafficking of girls from the north-eastern states, Bihar, Jharkhand, Nepal, and Madhya Pradesh has been growing with the active involvement of some placement agencies, said Raj Singh Chauhan who heads the NGO.

He said despite complaints, the authorities do little to investigate the cases. Chauhan said two girls rescued in the past few days were brought from Assam and Madhya Pradesh on the pretext of employment.

A tribal girl, Lucky, hailing from Biapokheri village in Dharam district of Assam, was approached by an agent, identified by her as Lilly, and brought to Delhi. She was promised a job in a “kothi” on a monthly salary of Rs 2,500 but was taken to a “placement agency”.

Chauhan claimed he had talked to Lilly, who had admitted to being paid Rs 3000 for each of the girls thus procured.

Lucky, in a state of shock, was spotted by some women near Phoosgarh, and taken to MDD Bal Bhavan. Lucky, daughter of Kartik and Janav, who was working in a house in Sector 8 here for the past eights months, suddenly disappeared and her employer lodged a complaint with the police.

He said he had paid Rs 17,000 to a placement agency in Punjabi Bagh, Delhi, and was paying Rs 1,800 per month to Lucky.

But the family of the girl denied having received any money.

Chauhan said he contacted Assam government which assured him of appropriate action after enquiry. The other case pertained to Rekha who was sent to Nari Niketan on November 23, 2006, and later shifted to MDD Bal Bhavan. Hailing from Khawsa village in Ghagua district of MP, Rekha had disappeared from the village some years ago. After much effort, Chauhan was able to contact the police in her village.

He learnt that a “missing report” was filed in the Thandla police station after her disappearance.

CHANDIGARH: Breaches along the embankment of the Ghaggar flooded more villages in Punjab’s Sangrur and Haryana’s Fatehabad districts on Saturday. Initial estimates suggest damage to paddy crop in over 2 lakh acre each in the two states.

The train services in Delhi-Amritsar section were restored after two days after tracks at Shahbad were repaired on Saturday.

In Haryana, government agencies put the losses at over Rs 1,000 crore. A door-to-door survey is being conducted to assess actual losses.

According to a preliminary assessment by Punjab government, the flood-affected districts have suffered losses worth around Rs 300 crore in crops and infrastructure. “These figures are mounting as floods are affecting fresh areas every day. We want a central government team to assess the losses,” said a senior Punjab government official.

Patiala in Punjab seems to be the worst affected district, where only 5 out of 25 breaches have been plugged so far. Even though there were no rains in the last three days, 25 villages still remain submerged. Floods have damaged 190 link roads in Patiala. Surging Ghaggar water has cut off eight villages in Sangrur from rest of Punjab.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams began rescue operations in the two states with the help of 18 boats.

However, slow pace of relief operations has angered flood victims. Reports said the Sangrur DC was heckled by villagers at Karail. In Patiala villagers depended mainly on the Army for food and water.

Fresh breaches erupted in the Ghaggar river which submerged scores of villages in Punjab.Thus Farmers in Punjab are being blamed by the Haryana government for diverting flood water from the Ghaggar river into the dry Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal leading to flooding in some districts.For this reason Haryana government wants joint police patrolling of canals and rivers in both states.Sirsa district in Haryana remained on the edge as overflowing water from the Ghaggar river inundated 14,000 acres of land in nearly a dozen villages Monday.

“The district administration has taken all necessary steps to prevent flood water from entering the populated area of any village of Sirsa district. The affected villages include Farwai Kalan, Neza Dela, Mallewala, Panihari, Burjkarmgarh and Musahibwala,” said Prahlad Singh Gillakhera, Haryana’s chief parliamentary secretary.

“The water level in the Ghaggar is continuously increasing and currently 25,000 cusecs of water is flowing in it. High alert has been sounded in the nearby areas. This problem is because the river was breached near Jhanda Khurd village in Punjab yesterday (Sunday) morning.”Large swathes of agriculture land were inundated and nearly a dozen villages submerged in flood waters in Haryana’s Sirsa and Fatehabad districts due to breaches in the Ghaggar river, officials said Tuesday. However, flood waters have begun receding in Punjab.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is expected to visit the flood-affected areas of Sirsa and Fatehabad Tuesday to assess the situation.

Haryana’s Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Fatehabad districts have beem inundated for last few days. However, the officials maintain that the situation was gradually improving.

Fresh Breaches

Both states have blamed each other for last week’s flooding in certain districts following heavy rainfall in the region.

Two fresh breaches in the Ghaggar river and one in the Narwana canal in different parts of Punjab submerged scores of villages and inundated several acres of agricultural land in the state’s Mansa district, an official said.
‘Two new breaches have surfaced in the Ghaggar river near Makroad and Chandu and one breach has occurred in the Narwana canal. So far, the floods have affected 2.5 lakh acres of farm land, disturbing the lives of over 3 lakh people of 763 villages of Punjab,’ the state government spokesperson spokesman said.

Chief Engineer (Irrigation) Amarjit Singh Dullat told : ‘Due to fresh breaches many villages have been submerged in water. Our officials our trying to fill this breach but they are facing difficulties due to the heavy flow of water.’

Punjab CM visits flood hit areas

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, who visited some flood-hit villages Sunday, approved the contingency plans for flood-hit farmers.

‘Out of the flood-hit 2.5 lakh acres of farmland, situation of crops in 1.5 lakh acres is grave. As per initial estimates, total crop loss to the farmers could be around Rs.480 crores,’ he said.

Badal suggested that agriculture department advise farmers to sow short maturity paddy varieties.

‘RH10 hybrid variety gets matured in 110 days, Sugandh 2 and 3 take 120 to 125 days, whereas PUSA 44, which is normal sown by the farmers, takes 145-150 days for maturing. To save time, the possibility of direct plantation of paddy will be explored,’ he said.

One more person was killed in Sangrur district late Saturday due to heavy floods. This took the death toll in Punjab in this week’s flooding to 22. So far, 33 people have lost their lives in flood-affected areas in Punjab and Haryana.

Badal also appealed the central government to provide liberal aid to the state’s farmers so that they can re-sow their crops to fulfill the national target of paddy production. He also announced enhanced compensation to flood-hit farmers.

Nearly 400,000 acres of agricultural land, 2,000 villages and a few towns in nearly 10 districts in each state have been affected in the flood.

Rains which lashed many parts of Punjab and Haryana have caused fresh breaches in river Ghaggar even as the two neighbouring states battled flood fury, which has claimed 33 lives so far and damaged standing crops. The two states have suffered an estimated loss of nearly Rs 1,400 crore.
Advisor to Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda R.N. Prashar  said cuts in the SYL canal could be prevented by joint police patrolling.

Prashar, who visited SYL canal areas in the two states Sunday accompanied by senior officers of the irrigation department, said cuts in the SYL canal were made by the farmers of Punjab, causing flooding in Haryana.

“Senior officers of Punjab had already been intimated about this problem and they had assured cooperation in this matter. The Haryana government is making all out efforts to resolve this matter amicably,” he said.

He added that it was an inter-state matter and could take some time to resolve.

Irrigation and state government officials in Punjab have not responded to the joint patrolling suggestion made by Haryana.

Rescue work on in Punjab and Haryana

“The flood situation in the affected districts is improving. We have directed all deputy commissioners in the state to take all precautionary measures as heavy rain is expected at isolated places in Haryana till morning of July 14,” said Naresh Gulati, Haryana financial commissioner and principal secretary (Disaster Management).

“Rescue work is on and all major breaches in rivers and canals have been plugged. So far, 11 people have lost their lives in floods in Haryana,” stated Gulati.

In the neighbouring Punjab, rescue work was on in flood-hit areas.
“Due to breaches in Ghaggar river and heavy flow of water, various villages submerged in Mansa (in Punjab). Hundreds of acres of agricultural land has been inundated. The threat of flood is still looming over many nearby villages. We requisitioned army for help,” Mansa Deputy Commissioner Kumar Rahul told .

“Army personnel are working along with the district administration. We hope that the breaches will be plugged in at the earliest,” he said.

The army was also requisitioned in Haryana’s Fatehabad district where at least 30 villages were flooded due to breaches in the Ghaggar river.

“Water is flowing at very fast speed and nearly 30 villages are affected due to this. We are providing packed food, water and medicines to the victims,” said a Fatehabad district official.

Punjab irrigation officials said water was overflowing at alarming levels from rivers and canals.

“We are monitoring the flood situation very closely. There is a mixed response. In some parts water level is receding but it is overflowing at alarming levels at other places. Right now, we cannot say that the situation is totally under control. Work is on to plug the fresh breaches,” Punjab Chief Engineer (Irrigation) Amarjit Singh Dullat told .

Hundreds of villages in Patiala, Ludhiana, Fathegarh Sahib, Mohali and Sangrur districts were affected in last week’s flooding.

“Water level has started receding in various parts of Patiala but at some places the situation is grim. There has been extensive damage to property. Standing crops on at least 1 lakh hectares have been destroyed in the district,” Patiala Deputy Commissioner Dipinder Singh said.

Chandigarh, Jan 12 (IANS) In a bid to popularise Haryanvi culture, heritage and folk arts across the world, the Haryana government has decided to send cultural troupes to other states of the country once in a month and to other countries once a year.

‘Our cultural troupes will travel to different places so that people all around the world could be familiarised with our rich Haryanvi art and culture,’ Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Information and Public Relations) Sharda Rathore said Tuesday.

‘Our cultural troupes will be sent to other states and foreign countries on artist-exchange basis. We would also invite artists from those places to perform in our state. This exchange programme will give a new dimension to the culture of Haryana,’ she added.

She said the Haryana government has also constituted various awards to boost the morale of artists and to promote the state’s art and culture.

‘Our department would also organise cultural and information fairs at district and divisional level every month so that the budding talent, hidden in the rural areas, can get a platform to exhibit their abilities,’ Rathore added.

Chandigarh, Dec 7 (IANS) Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda Monday reiterated his government’s demand for a separate high court and in the state capital Chandigarh.
‘It is our legitimate right to have a separate high court for Haryana and at the same time we want it in Chandigarh,’ Hooda told reporters here Monday.
‘There is only the question of jurisdiction but we are confident that very soon all the issues will be settled and Haryana would have its separate high court,’ he added.
The centrally administered city Chandigarh is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.
‘Chandigarh is the capital of both Punjab and Haryana and same laws hold good in both states. We have full right over this union territory. If Punjab is ready to go out of Chandigarh, then we would have no problem in establishing our high court at some other place in Haryana,’ Hooda said.

CHANDIGARH: Heavy rainfall in Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana has brought the day temparature down to 27 degree celcius, also paralysing the normal life in the region.

This is second spell of rain in the last three days. “The rains started Monday night and continued without a break. We are expecting more rains in the next 24 to 36 hours. It would further bring down the mercury in this region,” said MET department sources.

“Yesterday (Monday), Chandigarh recorded a maximum temperature of 29.4 degrees Celsius, six notches below normal. Similarly, most parts of Punjab and Haryana also saw a dip of three to four degrees in mercury,” he said.

Chandigarh received 86.8 mm rainfall till 8.30 a.m. Tuesday. Rainfall in Haryana’s Ambala city was 190.6 mm and in Punjab’s Patiala city it was 90.5 mm.

According to met officials, monsoon arrived in this part of northern India Monday. In 2009, it had hit the region June 30.