IT Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: Adampur reeled under piercing cold as mercury dropped to minus 3.6 degrees celsius on Monday as intense chill continued to prevail in most parts of Punjab and Haryana, but the people can expect respite by Thursday.

Adampur in Jalandhar recorded the coldest night of the season so far as minimum temperature dropped by eight degrees below normal range.

With mercury hovering close to the freezing point at many other places in the region, the temperatures are likely to drop further or remain same at most places during the next two days.

However, people can expect relief from cold wave as temperatures will rise between two to four degrees by Thursday, a Met official said here.

Meanwhile, Amritsar reeled under severe cold, recording a minimum temperature of minus 1 degree Celsius, which was five degrees below normal range.
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CHANDIGARH: Israelis apparently prefer India’a basmati rice over the Texmati (that is similar to the Indian variety) grown in the United States. Members of an Israeli delegation that visited the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal and the town’s local ‘mandi’ said they would import the basmati from Haryana and in return provide technical knowhow for advancement of animal husbandry in this country. India grows several basmati varieties including super and Pusa 1.

Till now 11% of Israel’s total exports exports to India consisted of agricultural products. Sources said with rice exports to that country bilateral trade will become more balanced.

The 28-member team headed by Salom Simhan was all praise for this long grain rice variety of Haryana and the test tube machinery meant for animals at the NDRI. The sources said it is only after a lot of research on which grain to chose have they shown interest in the basmati grown in the state.

NDRI director Sushi Gupta said though he was not privy to the basmati deal there had been talks on Israel extending technical knowhow to dairy units in India.
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CHANDIGARH: After scoring over neighbouring Punjab and Haryana in adopting the new Police Act, Himachal Pradesh police may soon become one of the very few states in the country, and the first in the region, to shed another century-old British relic, the colour khaki – something that has over the years become a symbol of dread.

Acting on this landmark change, the state police department has made a proposal, which will be submitted to the government soon, that says the pattern of uniform, too, must change as it adopts blue, the new colour.

Source: The Times of India News Service

CHANDIGARH: In an ironic twist of fate, the central government has glossed over Punjab’s farm indebtedness and selected five southern states for the relief package. In the food bowl of the country, there has been an bewildering jump-Rs 21,000 to Rs 27,000-in the debt burden just within six months. Correspondingly, the number of farmers’ suicides has gone up to 13,000.

The figures were presented by director of Kheti Virasat Surendra Singh, who quoted State Farmers’ Commission and PAU studies to show how agriculture was in the middle of a maelstrom, with its soil losing fertility and farmers ending lives in despair.” The future is bleak, if you factor in inevitable like WTO conditions,” is what the speakers opined during a state level workshop on “Transition to organic agriculture, challenges and prospects’ jointly organized by Kheti Virasat and the Nabha foundation.

Social scientists also warned against the advent of harsh conditions in WTO regime saying we need to retain most of the safeguards which were available before signing the WTO pact. “The qualitative restrictions (QRs) where a country had the right to stop the import of any commodities glutting the market, need to be brought back, as also the various credit lending mechanisms and incentives by financial institutions,” said executive member of All India People Science Network K Ashok Rao.
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Chandigarh: A Sector 20 resident, Amit Saini (36), died when his motorbike skidded and hit the median at Sector 20-21 dividing road this afternoon.

Saini, who died of severe head injuries, was wearing a safety helmet. According to the police, however, the helmet was neither fastened properly nor bore an ISI mark.

Saini was working with Haryana Health Department on contract basis.

With Saini’s death, the accident toll in the city has touched 11 and 18 in the tricity in 2008. Out of these, nine persons who died in the city were two-wheeler riders.

Saini was on his way towards labour chowk, when, according to the eyewitnesses, he lost balance. “It appeared as if either his motorbike skidded and he lost balance and hit the ground. His head hit the median and he collapsed. Police reached the spot in a few minutes and rushed him to hospital,” said a woman, who was sitting in a park adjoining the road when the accident took place.

“We inspected the spot. There was no evidence of involvement of any other vehicle in the mishap. Since the helmet that Saini was wearing was of inferior quality, he could not survive the crash,” said Inspector SS Bhullar, Station House Officer, Police Station 19.

Source: ENS

Chandigarh: There are more than 1,500 Injected Drug Users (IDUs) in the tricity and more than 13 per cent of IDUs in Chandigarh are HIV positive.

This was revealed in a report on ‘Size Estimation of Injection Drug Use in Punjab and Haryana’ at Panjab University today. The report was released by UT Administrator Gen S F Rodrigues.

UNAIDS got the study conducted by Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM) along with National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre of AIIMS.

The study has also found out that most of the IDUs were employed and in the age group of 18 to 30 years. A good number of these started using drugs recently — since three to seven years. Most were frequent injectors and used to inject either daily, multiple times or three to four times a week.

The sample size in Chandigarh-Panchkula was 326, while in Ropar-Mohali it was 297. Of these 50 per cent respondents in Chandigarh-Panchkula and 80 per cent respondents Ropar-Mohali were married. This increased the risk of HIV infection among their spouses. Of these, a majority claimed not having shared needles ever. The study also revealed that a few respondents had received any kind of treatment. No one reported having received oral substitution treatment. In Chandigarh-Panchkula, a small minority reported receiving needle syringe exchange services.
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Chandigarh: After finding that instances of female foeticide are growing in other parts of the country including neighbouring Punjab, the UT Administration, in a bid to ensure that such instances do not occur here, have made registration of pregnant women compulsory in the nearest health centre or the hospital. UT Home Secretary Krishna Mohan issued an order in this regard today.

Now pregnant women in Chandigarh will be motivated to get themselves registered with the nearest sub-centre, health centre, poly-clinic, community health centre, hospital, including private clinics and private hospitals by the Anganwari Worker, health workers including ANM/LHV and Doctors.

It has been directed that health workers and doctors attending to the pregnant women should maintain their record and keep a track of their pregnancy till delivery. They have also been asked to keep track of abortion if any and bring the same to the notice of appropriate Authority-cum-Director Health and Family Welfare, UT, Chandigarh.

Home Secretary has ordered that all ultrasound centres, clinics and hospitals hospitals shall strictly adhere to the provisions of the PNDT and MTP Acts.

The police will inform the Appropriate Authority-cum-Director Health and Family Welfare, UT, about the incident of any foetus or infant found abandoned in UT. “All foetus or infant found abandoned should be tested for DNA test in order to correlate with the women at a later stage, if found suspicious of having aborted,” it added.

Source: ENS