The Tribune – Sirsa gets top facility to boost fruit yield, Centre of Excellence inaugurated; Israel to train Haryana farmers

Sushil Manav, Tribune News Service

Mangiana (Sirsa), May 21. Israel will run two training courses every year for progressive farmers from Haryana. In these courses, the farmers will learn modern techniques for increasing their income from farming.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ambassador of Israel in India Alon Ushpiz announced this after inaugurating the Centre of Excellence for Fruits, an Indo-Israel project, at Mangiana, about 60 km from Sirsa town.

“In the present times, when landholdings are becoming smaller and water is becoming scarce, adoption of the latest technology is the only way to survive for our farmers,” Hooda said addressing farmers after the inauguration of the project. He said that he had been to Israel and had seen how farmers in that country had been making handsome earnings from small landholdings by taking to newer techniques in horticulture.

He said that it was due to these techniques that Israeli farmers have been supplying fruits to the whole of Europe despite living in a country as small as the state of Haryana.

“Israel and Haryana have several similarities in climate and soil conditions. There is an acute shortage of irrigation water in Israel, but farmers there are getting four to five times more production by adopting the most modern technology of irrigation and cultivation,” said Hooda.

The Chief Minister said that keeping this in mind, the Government of India approved two centres of excellence – one for vegetables and the other for fruits in Haryana at a cost of Rs 15.7 crore. The Centre of Excellence for Vegetables is already functional at Gharaunda in Karnal while the Centre of Excellence for Fruits was launched today in Mangiana.

Set up on 78 acres at a cost of Rs 9.7 crore, the Centre of Excellence for Fruits will endeavour to develop sub-tropical fruit cultivation and industry in Haryana.

The major interventions of the Centre of Excellence for Fruits will be the introduction of improved cultivars and new crops for citrus, olives, dates, pomegranates and guava.

The centre will also work towards the demonstration of modern production technologies, post-harvest management technologies and quality management. It will also take steps to develop human resources and capacity building.

Israel’s Ambassador in India Alon Ushpiz was all praise for Haryana and its people.

He said that whenever he visited Haryana, he felt like visiting his own country and when he talked to farmers in Haryana, he had the feeling as if he was talking to his countrymen.

“Like the farmers in my country, peasants in Haryana are hardworking and dedicated. They never surrender to the challenges of nature,” Ushpiz said.

The Israeli Ambassador ended his speech by reading two lines of thanks in Hindi and said he had taken to learning this language now.

Daniel Carmon, Head of MASHAV, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, said that the cooperation between Israel and Haryana in the field of agriculture was flourishing.

Carmon said that a minister from Africa visited a centre in Haryana and then approached him with a request that she wanted such a centre replicated in Africa.

Haryana Agriculture Minister Paramvir Singh said that the National Horticulture Mission was being implemented effectively in the state and subsidies from 25 to 100 per cent were being given to farmers.

Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar, Haryana Minister of State for Agriculture Sukhbir Kataria and Chief Minister’s OSD (Media) KV Singh, who contested last the Assembly election from Dabwali Assembly seat under which Mangiana falls, also addressed the gathering.

Omar Zeidan, head, Centre of International Agriculture Development Cooperation (CINADCO), Israel, CPS Prahlad Singh Gillankhera and former minister Ranjit Singh were among those present on the occasion.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130522/main5.htm

The Tribune – Violence by upper caste community forces Dalits to flee Haryana village

Bhanu P. Lohumi, Tribune News Service

Pabnawa (Kaithal), April 16. Deserted chopal, bricks and stones scattered all around, broken gates and ransacked houses of Dalits narrate the horrid tale of brutal violence perpetrated on them by goons of upper caste at Pabnawa village of Kaithal district on the intervening night of April 13 and 14, forcing the Dalit womenfolk to flee the village.

The horrifying incident took place on the eve of 122nd birth anniversary of BR Ambedakar, known as messiah of Dalits, and about 80 houses were ransacked and 11 persons, including seven policemen, were seriously injured.

The Dalits paid for the “sin” of marrying an upper caste girl by a Dalit boy of the village and the brutal attack engineered after giving ultimatum to the Dalits to return the girl within two days, the victims lamented.

The upper caste community could not digest marriage of Surya Kant, a Dalit, and Meena belonging to Rod community, and their marriage spelled doom for the entire community, living under fear and terror.

Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes PL Punia who arrived at the village to take stock of the situation was encountered by an 80-year old woman when he had barely walked 100 metres into snaking gullies who fell on his feet and asked “What is our fault. What have we done”.

The women identified as Raji, mother of “Miya” the kiryana shopowner at the chopal who was seriously injured and was admitted to PGI when more than 400 persons of Rod community, opposed to marriage of their girl with low caste boy, attacked their homes just sought justice.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Raji pointed towards the gate of her broken home which was ransacked and said they came like a tornado, attacked my son, injured him, took away the canter, shop material and assets.

She was not the only one to tell her tale of woes and every broken gate had a story inside it. Another resident who was an eyewitness to the attack, Ramesh, said neither had we supported Surya Kant of our community who got married to Meena of Rod community nor we were instrumental in the marriage. Then why we have been victimised and forced to live under threat.

An old man Lakhmi Chand said we were fortunate that we sent our women and kids to our relatives’ place after the big wigs of Rod community served an ultimatum of two days on April 10 to get the girl back or face the consequences.

The worst hit were the people engaged in menial jobs who feel threatened to go out to earn their livelihood and were waiting for the survey to be completed so that they could get money to reconstruct their homes.

Kaithal SP Kuldeep Singh said the situation was under control on Monday and police personnel were deployed in the village. “The villagers from both the communities are making efforts to sort out the issue.

The administration is cooperating with them in this initiative,” he said.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130417/main5.htm#1

The Tribune – Vijender finally gives samples to NADA; Ram Singh arrested

Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Fatehgarh Sahib, April 3. In a double twist to the drug seizure case, India’s Olympic hero Vijender Singh today made himself available for an out-of-competition dope test by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) for heroin use while his sparring partner Ram Singh was arrested for his links to one of the key accused.

The dope tests were apparently conducted in Delhi this morning when Vijender made himself available to give his urine and blood samples. Sports Minister Jitender Singh confirmed the tests and is learnt to have told Vijender to go for rehabilitation, as the boxer allegedly consumed heroin not as a performance-enhancing drug but for “recreation”, though heroin is a prohibited item in the WADA (World Anti Doping Agency) list.

“NADA has taken Vijender’s samples in the morning. The blood and urine samples of Vijender and other boxers have been taken. I will wait for the results before deciding on any action. I don’t want to speculate. But even if Vijender has made a mistake, he should of course be punished or penalised, but after that his rehabilitation should start,” the minister said. “We need to see that our sportspersons are rehabilitated so that they could perform.”

Ram Singh on the other hand was arrested by the Fatehgarh Sahib police for his close links to his brother-in-law Ravicharan Singh, alias Ravi Deol, prime accused in the recent drug seizure case. Deol has already been declared a proclaimed offender in an assault case registered in Sangrur.

Addressing mediapersons late this evening, Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Hardial Singh Mann said after the recovery of drugs and “ice” worth Rs 115 crore from Deol’s parental house in Sangrur, Ram Singh was asked to join investigation again today.

During questioning, it was found that Ram Singh had deeper links with smugglers, which necessitated his custodial interrogation, he added.

Ram Singh is married to Deol’s sister. He had introduced Vijender to Deol, a former boxer, and the latter had given tips on boxing to Vijender. Vijender and Ram Singh had also visited Deol after former’s Beijing Olympics triumph.

Ram Singh has been booked under Sections 21, 61 and 85, NDPS Act, and Sections 25, 54, 59A, 420, 465, 468 and 471, IPC.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130404/main2.htm

The Tribune – Rs 484-Crore drug haul case; Police may issue lookout notice for Ram Singh’s relative

Sanjay Bumbroo, Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, April 2. The district police will soon issue a lookout notice for boxer Ram Singh’s brother-in-law and proclaimed offender (PO) Ravicharn Singh alias Ravi Deol, whose name figured in the Rs 484-crore drug haul case. Sources said the police was yet to make any headway in arresting Deol and the other two accused, Satinder Singh alias Dhama, resident of Panchkula and Avtar Singh of Patiala.

The police had decided to issue a lookout notice against them too. The police had raided the residences of the three accused on Sunday and recovered 10 kg of Ice and 230 kg of Pseudophedrine from the vehicles parked on their premises.

Sources said international boxer Vijender Singh had come in contact with Anup Singh Kahlon through his sparring partner Ram Singh, who was married to Deol’s sister. Kahlon and Deol had come to know each other when the latter had moved to Mumbai after being declared as a PO five years ago for assaulting a policeman.

Deol had been booked under Sections 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 384 (Extortion) on August 25, 2008. Sources said the police would soon summon Vijender boxer and suspended boxer Ram Singh to join the investigation. Senior Superintendent of Police Hardial Singh Mann said raids were being conducted at all the possible hideouts of the three accused.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130403/punjab.htm#10

The Tribune – Sharjah Case, Tears, joy, resolve as 17 youths meet kin

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 12. It was an emotional reunion for 17 youths – who returned to India from the United Arab Emirates – with their families at the Golden Temple here on Tuesday.

A majority of them met their families, who were camping in Amritsar since Monday evening, after a gap of five to seven years. The youths, facing death sentence for the murder of a Pakistani, were released by UAE authorities after they paid Rs 5.3 crore as blood money to the victim’s family.

The youths — 16 from Punjab and one from Haryana — landed at New Delhi on Tuesday morning and reached Amritsar in the evening. Most of them are school dropouts who had gone to the Arab nation to augment their family’s income.

Dressed up in a bright yellow salwar kameez, Ranjit Kaur from Jhoke Tehal Singh Wala village in Ferozepur district, screamed with joy after seeing her husband Dharampal Singh. She was accompanied by her five-and-a-half -year-old son. “It’s for the first time that he (Dharampal) is meeting his son,” she said.

Dharampal says he will now till his five-acre land to earn a living. “I went in search of greener pastures and avoided this easily available option (farming),” he said. He moved to Dubai in September 2007 after paying Rs one lakh to a Jalandhar-based agent to work as a carpenter. “The initial few months were okay. I used to earn Rs 15,000 per month. But soon the private company, which had hired me, ran into some trouble and I was rendered jobless,” he said.

Tears rolled down the cheeks of Jaswinder Kaur of Kukrana village in Moga as she hugged her son Kuldeep Singh (28) after a gap of five years.

Holding her son’s hand firmly, she said she would never allow him to travel out of the country for a job. Kuldeep said his first priority would be to clear the debt lakh his family had taken to send him abroad.

Kuldeep, also a carpenter, said he was fleeced by the private company that had hired him. “They had promised to give me Rs 12,000 per month, but they paid only half the amount,” claimed Kuldeep.

Kashmir Singh of Rattu Ke Village in Tarn Taran says he wants to give his daughters a quality life. A skilled mason, he flew to Dubai with the help of a relative to increase his monthly income in 2007. His hopes, however, were dashed as the company where he was employed failed.

As many as 14 out of 17 youths were staying together in a villa when they were arrested on January 26, 2009. In total, 70 persons from different countries, including, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, were living together to curtail their expenses.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130213/main3.htm

The Tribune – In Haryana heartland, criminals call the shots; Sonepat district witnesses highest crime rate; Panchkula among safest districts

Pradeep Sharma, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 1. Crime continues to be a way life in the land of khaps and honour killings with Haryana recording three murders, two rapes, four kidnappings and three dacoities daily last year.

In fact, the state reported 983 murder and 687 rape cases last year, slightly less than the 2011 figures of 1,061 murders and 723 rapes.

Other crimes, including kidnapping (1,313 against 960 in 2011), dowry deaths (258 as compared to 256 in 2011), dacoities/robberies (915 against 797 in 2011), and dowry cases (3,138 against 2,739 in 2011) also soared, a major cause for concern for Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who faces Assembly and parliamentary elections next year.

Sonepat topped the list of districts with the highest crime rate in the state, registering 86 murders, as against 81 last year, says official data collected by The Tribune. In 2011, millennium city Gurgaon was at the top with 89 murders.

Bhiwani, which accounted for 74 murders in 2011, was bracketed with Gurgaon with 81 murders. Mewat with just 12 murder followed by Panchkula (15) and Fatehabad (17) continued to be the least “crime-prone” districts in the state.

Karnal along the GT Road continued to be the “rape capital” of the state, registering 63 cases – one more than 2011.

It was followed by Faridabad (46), and Hisar and Gurgaon (44 each). The Hooda government drew a lot of flak last year for rising number of rape cases.

Sonepat continued on the crime trail with 30 dowry deaths (23 in 2011) followed by Karnal (23) and Bhiwani (19).

Soaring crime graph has provided fresh ammunition to the Opposition to target the beleagured Hooda government, which is fighting on several fronts. “There is a complete jungle raj in the state with crime against women and the downtrodden on the rise,” alleged BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma.

Sources claimed the police had succeeded in containing crime to some extent.

In spite of claims by the Hooda government about improved law and order situation in the state, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs has dubbed Haryana, having a national population average of 2 per cent, the 12th “most criminal” state in the country.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130202/main3.htm

BBC News – Om Prakash Chautala: India politician jailed over corruption

Tuesday 22 January 2013. The former chief minister of the Indian state of Haryana Om Prakash Chautala and his politician son Ajay have been sentenced for 10 years in jail in a corruption case.

Last week, the politicians and 53 others were convicted for illegally hiring more than 3,000 school teachers.

Chautala is the leader of the Indian National Lok Dal party and the son of former deputy prime minister Devi Lal.

Earlier, his supporters clashed with the police outside the court.

Police used batons and fired teargas shells to control the thousands of protesters who had gathered outside the court complex on Tuesday morning.

The scandal came to light in 2008 when the federal Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed charges against Chautala and the others.

The CBI said father and son had forged documents to appoint 3,206 teachers between 1999 and 2000.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-21137875

The Tribune – Post RTE, reading ability takes a hit; Haryana sees steepest fall, Punjab, HP pupils weaker in maths

Aditi Tandon, Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 18. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) has failed to positively impact learning outcomes of students across government schools in the country with more than half the class V students now unable to comprehend class II texts.

This marks the steepest decline in children’s reading levels over the past three years, putting a question mark over the employment of continuous and comprehensive evaluation of students as a strategy under the RTE Act.

The major drop – of five percentage points as compared to 2011 – in reading abilities of students has been seen in Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala. The decline is true of students in both government and private elementary schools, indicating a significant challenge for school education.

The Annual Status of Education Report-2012 published by community building organisation Pratham further shows that despite being the year of arithmetic, 2012 hardly brought any good news for the subject.

Arithmetic abilities of students have in fact dropped sharply. In 2010, of all children enrolled in class V, 29.1 per cent could not solve simple two-digit subtractions with borrowing. The percentage rose to 39 in 2011 and is 46.5 pc this year.

Such has been the drop that comparing a cohort of children in government schools in class V in 2011 with that in the same grade in 2012, there is evidence of over 10 percentage point drop in the ability to do basic subtraction in all states.

Class-V graders have been found to be much weaker at problem solving this year than in 2011 particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. Other states have recorded declines but not that sharp.

In J&K, for instance, only 17.3 per cent elementary school students (classes I to VIII) can do divisions as of 2012. The ability of students to divide is the lowest in smaller grades.

In class III, only 6.8 per cent of all students in government and private schools in the state can divide and the percentage is 20.9 for those in class V.

Around 30 per cent students of classes I to VIII in the state can do subtraction but no division. Punjab and Haryana are slightly better than J&K but struggling to improve nevertheless.

In Punjab, 35.4 per cent of all elementary-level students can do divisions; 23.9 per cent can do subtractions but no divisions. Corresponding percentages for Haryana are 33.8 and 22.8.

“The continuous comprehensive evaluation mandated under RTE Act has not really improved the learning ability of students. The practice has actually led to declines. That poses a question mark on the merit of the strategy,” says Madhav Chavan of Pratham.

So far as reading goes, in 2010, the year of RTE’s implementation, nationally 46.3 per cent students of class V enrolled in both government and private schools could not read basic class II text. The percentage rose to 51.8 in 2011 and further to 53.2 in 2012.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130119/main3.htm

The Tribune – 17 Indians in Sharjah murder case can finally return home

Prabhjot Singh, Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Dubai, January 17. A long-drawn legal battle finally come to an end today as 17 Indian boys, who have been languishing in Sharjah jail for more than three years, got the final approval from the Sharjah court and were cleared for deportation.

All of them had got death sentence, which the court had waived in 2011 after Dubai businessman SP Singh Oberoi paid blood money of one million US dollars to the parents of the victim Mishri Khan.

But, permission to leave the United Arab Emirates was held up as a civil petition seeking compensation for those injured in the Mishri Khan murder case was filed.

The case pertains to 2009 when a group of Indian workers clashed with a group of workers from Pakistan in which Mishri Khan of Sargodha was killed and two of his cousins — Mushtaq Ahmed and Shahid Iqbal — were grievously injured.

Subsequently 17 Indian boys were charged for a drunken brawl leading to murder and arson. They were subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. It was under pressure from the media that the Indian mission in UAE hired a team of lawyers to defend the Indian boys who pleaded innocent. An appeal was filed in the Sharjah Appeal Court against the orders of the Sharjah Court in April 2010.

It was during hearing of the appeal that the Sharjah Court asked the defence team if it was prepared for settlement under Diya – blood money – to which it reluctantly agreed holding that it had a fool proof case.

Oberoi paid up the blood money and the court also endorsed the settlement deal and waived the death sentence in 2011. But then the civil petition was filed and it took more than a year for adjudication and forced the 17 Indian boys to have an extended stay in the Sharjah jail even after their death sentence had been waived.

S P Singh Oberoi says that with the pronouncement of a joint compensation of AED 1,00,000 for Mushtaq Ahmed and Shahid Iqbal for grievous injuries they received in the clash will now get Indian boys released.

Case file

Mishri Khan of Pakistan was killed and two were injured in a clash in Sharjah in 2009

The Sharjah police prosecuted 17 Indian boys. They were sentenced to death. All convicts are from Punjab and Haryana

On September 12, 2011, the court waived the death sentence of all the convicts after they paid the “blood money”

On September 23 when they were about to return to India, a civil petition seeking relief for the two injured was filed

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130118/punjab.htm#11

The Tribune – The big chill: At -3°C, Narnaul (Haryana) coldest place in plains

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 7. The cold wave condition intensified with the minimum temperature plummeting sharply, throwing normal life out of gear in many places of the North. According to weather office, the lowest minimum temperature of minus 3.0 degree Celsius was recorded at Narnaul (Haryana) in the plains of the country.

With cold wave conditions raging, Delhi continued to shiver as mercury remained below normal by five notches to settle at 2.4 degree Celsius. The maximum temperature too dipped to seven degrees below normal to settle at 13.4 degree Celsius.

In the neighbourhood, Hisar reeled with a low of minus 0.8 degree Celsius, two degrees below normal, followed by Bhiwani with 0.5. Minimum temperature in Amritsar settled at a low of 1.8 degrees Celsius while Patiala and Ludhiana recorded the minimum temperatures of 2.4 and 2.7 degree Celsius, respectively.

The entire Kashmir Valley continued to reel under intense cold with night temperature hovering several degrees below freezing point. The minimum temperature recorded in Srinagar was minus 4.9 degree Celsius, down by 0.3 notches from yesterday’s minus of 4.6 degrees Celsius.

The Met office said the Kargil town in frontier region of Ladakh was the coldest place in the state with a low of minus 16.4 degree Celsius, while mercury in Gulmarg plunged further to minus 9.8 degree Celsius. Shimla, the capital of Himachal Pradesh, shivered at a low of minus 0.6 degree Celsius.

Rajasthan continued to remain in the grip of severe cold, with Churu being the coldest place at minus 2.7 degree Celsius followed by Karauli at zero degree while in UP Muzaffarnagar shivered at minus 0.7 degree Celsius. Agra recorded 0.6 degree Celsius, Najibabad (Bijnor) 1.0, Lucknow and Aligarh 1.4 each and Kheri 1.6 degree Celsius.

In Uttarakhand, the Tehri district was the coldest at 0.5 degree Celsius followed by Mukteshwar at 0.4 and Pithoragarh at 0.2 degree Celsius. Capital Dehradun also shivered at 1.3 degree Celsius.

According to the IMD, cold wave conditions would prevail over some parts of Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar during next 48 hours. While dense fog would abate from many parts of Indo-Gangetic plains during next 1-2 days, strong northwesterly winds from tomorrow onwards could worsen chill conditions.

Chandigarh’s coldest day in history

Chandigarh on Monday recorded its coldest day in history with a maximum temperature at 6.1°C, as piercing cold conditions swept Punjab and Haryana.

The minimum temperature recorded in Srinagar was minus 4.9°C

Hisar reeled with a low of minus 0.8°C

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130108/main5.htm