Karnal :
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the ruling BJP party and said it had failed to fulfil its poll promises.

He alleged that it had ignored farmers and had not taken any initiative for their betterment.

“We are preparing our manifesto for the elections and have kept several policies for the welfare of the farmers in it,” said Hooda while interacting with farmers and traders at a programme organised by former district president Surinder Narwal in the Assandh grain market.

The former Chief Minister also attended a “smriti sabha” organised in memory of Thakur Bijender Singh, a resident of Salwan and former Additional Advocate General Haryana, and remembered his services in Assandh.

He said farmers of the state would assemble in Chandigarh to discuss their issues on October 25 and later the Congress would include the issues of debt waiver and doubling the income of the farmers in its manifesto. “We will waive the farmers’ loan and double the income the farmers if voted to power,” he said.

Addressing farmers, Hooda said the farming community was happy during his regime, but now it was struggling hard to earn its livelihood. He flayed the government for implementing “Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana” and said that insurance companies were making money and farmers were waiting for compensation.

He said the government was harassing farmers for stubble burning to hide its failure of giving an alternative to farmers. He criticised the lathi-charge on farmers on the Delhi-UP border.

On being asked about the cases registered against him, Hooda maintained, “I am not afraid of the BJP and would not bend. The BJP has registered false cases against me, but truth will prevail.”

Rohtak :
The resident doctors at the local PGIMS, who had been on strike over pay anomalies since Wednesday, ended their strike on being assured of the fulfilment of their demands.

The PGIMS public relations officer, Dr Varun Arora, stated that the striking doctors ended their strike after the University of Health Sciences Vice-Chancellor, Prof OP Kalra, gave them a written assurance regarding their demands.

The resident doctors have been assured that the matter pertaining to their pay anomalies would be taken up with the state authorities promptly and the said anomalies would be removed in a time-bound manner, said Kalra.

PGIMS Resident Doctors Association vice-president Dr Gaurav Nandal confirmed that the association had called off their stir. As per the PGIMS authorities, the striking doctors have started rejoining their duties.

Nearly 1,200 resident doctors of the institute, including junior and senior resident doctors as well as house surgeons, had gone on strike on Wednesday, bringing the patient-care services at the PGIMS to a standstill.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued here this evening, the PGIMS Residents Doctors Association (RDA) maintained that the body would resume its stir after 10 days if their demands were not met by then.

Dera Fateh Singh (Kurukshetra) :

A progressive farmer, Karan Jit Singh Chatha, sees a pilot project of the Haryana Government to promote drip irrigation through the solar-based micro-irrigation system as a potential game-changer for water conservation.

Last year, Chatha volunteered to give 6 acres near Pehowa to the Command Area Development Authority (CADA) for research and development for the implementation of its indigenously developed water-efficient technology.

Under the guidance of CADA and its associated agencies, Chatha is simultaneously experimenting growing paddy on 3 acres using drip and sprinkler irrigation and controlled flooding of fields at one site on a 3-acre land.

Canal water is being stored in a large pool. Solar panels installed in the fields and the power generated has been linked to a power grid through separate feeder lines.

Electricity supply from the grid is reverted to the fields to energise the micro-irrigation system. In case of power breakdown or power supply fluctuations, the required water pressure to irrigate fields remains steady.

“The field study says drip irrigation in paddy is possible and it saves more than 42 per cent water than in conventional farming,” said Chatha.

Last year, the per acre yield of popular paddy variety PR-126 was 26 quintals at Chatha’s drip-irrigated fields and it was 5 quintals less than the average yield.

However, the fields managed directly by CADA recorded 12 per cent higher production in the drip-irrigated than flood irrigated fields.

“The low yield was expected due to various factors associated in maiden experimentation on the field. But this year, I am expecting a better production. The state should rework on the flawed 85 per cent subsidy to promote drip irrigation as every crop has different requirement,” he said.

To further popularise drip irrigation, on-the-spot cash incentive should be adopted, as a majority of farmers may not prefer direct benefit transfer (DBT), said Chatha.

Project coordinator and CADA executive engineer Neeraj Sharma said the pilot project was launched last year under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) to ensure water supply to every farm.

It was first of its kind project in the country for which Niti Aayog signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with CADA in November last for pan-India promotion of the solar-based micro-irrigation project.

Saves 42% water

In the project, canal water is stored in a large pool and solar panels installed in the fields and the power generated are linked to a power grid. Power supply from the grid is reverted to the fields to energise the micro-irrigation system. In case of power breakdown or power supply fluctuation, the required water pressure to irrigate fields remains steady. Studies say drip irrigation in paddy is possible and it saves more than 42 per cent water than conventional farming.

Chandigarh :
With two important rallies in the Jat heartland of the state in the coming four days, both the ruling party BJP and the main Opposition party INLD will try to woo voters ahead of the next year’s parliamentary and Assembly polls.

Interestingly, both rallies are being held in “old undivided Rohtak district”, considered the stronghold of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a 64-foot-high statue of Sir Chhotu Ram, an ideologue of peasants in the pre-Independence era, and will address the BJP’s rally at Sampla in Rohtak on October 9, while the INLD will hold “Samman Rally” at Gohana (Sonepat) on October 7 to mark the birth anniversary of the party’s patriarch and late Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal.

Political observers believe that by honouring the Jat legend, the BJP is not only trying to woo Jat voters towards the party fold, but is also trying to appease Sir Chhotu Ram’s grandson Union Minister Birendra Singh who is considered among tall Jat leaders of the state.

Knighted by the British government with the honour of Sir, Chhotu Ram is known for having evoked group consciousness among Jat peasantry, as well as for bringing a number of agrarian reforms as a minister in undivided Punjab in British India.

As revenue minister, he brought in changes in the to stop the practice of usury (practice of lending money on unreasonably high rate of interest).

The statue has been constructed at Chhotu Ram’s native village Garhi Sampla in Rohtak district.

Notably, the statue was ready almost a year ago and since then, it stood covered with a piece of cloth at the venue.

Only on September 27, INLD MP from Hisar Dushyant Singh Chautala had given an ultimatum to the government that if the statue was not unveiled by November 1, he would go to Garhi Sampla with his supporters and unveil it.

The October 7 “Samman Rally” of the INLD was to be earlier held on September 25; the birth anniversary of Devi Lal, but the party had to postpone it because of waterlogging of the venue because of torrential rains.

Former CM Om Prakash Chautala, who is serving imprisonment in JBT teachers’ recruitment case, is out on furlough for 14 days and is likely to attend the rally.

Similarly, BSP supremo Mayawati had also given her consent to Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala to address the rally when the latter went to him for Rakshabandhan.

Jats comprise nearly 25 per cent of the state’s population, but have influence on the voting pattern of some other castes in villages and, hence, play an important role in the polls.

With the community agitating for quota for the past some years and its violent stir in February 2016 leading to 30 deaths, all political parties are trying to gauge which way Jats could go in the 2019 polls.

PM’s rally on Oct 9

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a 64-foot-high statue of Sir Chhotu Ram, an ideologue of peasants in the pre-Independence era, at Sampla in Rohtak on October 9
• He will also address the BJP rally
• The INLD will hold “Samman Rally” at Gohana (Sonepat) on October 7 to mark the birth anniversary of the party's patriarch and late Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal
• Political observers believe that by honouring the Jat legend, the BJP is not only trying to woo Jat voters towards the party fold, but is also trying to appease Sir Chhotu Ram’s grandson Union Minister Birendra Singh 

Karnal :
Scores of farmers under the banner of the Kisan Swaraj Samiti on Friday observed ‘black day’ and staged dharna near the Mahatma Gandhi chowk here against the lathicharge on farmers by the police on the Delhi-UP border on October 2.

They criticised the Centre for the lathicharge and said farmers would continue their protest. They wore black bands to condemn it.

Virender Singh Rathore, national secretary of the All-India Congress Committee, extended support to the protest and said the lathicharge was a black day in the history of the country. He said the BJP government had tried to suppress the voice of the farmers.
He said the government had been forcing the farmers to commit suicide by not giving right price for their produce.

Meanwhile, several farmers, under the banner of the Bhartiya Kisan Union, led by Rattan Mann, state president, announced to observe fast on October 9, the day of the Prime Minister’s rally at Sampla in Rohtak district, against the lathicharge.

“We will stage a dharna and observe fast near the statue of Sir Chotu Ram on October 9,” said Mann.