Saurabh Prashar

"State police authorities are lagging behind in view of financial investigation in drug peddling cases", said Gyaneshwar Singh, Deputy Director-General, Northern Region, Narcotics Control Bureau.

The traffic police had proposed certain changes in the notification issued back in 2013, suggesting that the notification be simplified so a layperson can understand recommended speed limits on particular roads/stretches etc.

The Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) has given permission to a three-member team of mountaineers led by Arjun Vajpayee, the youngest Indian to climb Mount Everest, for a winter climbing expedition to Mount Trishul, a 7,120-metre peak in western Kumaon of Uttarakhand.

"Even now, officials of Haryana animal husbandry and dairying department are not collecting the right figures of already died poultry birds. Almost 50,000 birds in my two farms died," Gopal Rana, owner of two poultry farms said.

At least 78 per cent increase in the traffic challans for over-speeding was reported in 2020, as compared to 2019, raising several concerns. One of the prime reasons behind most of the road crashes, both fatal and non-fatal, is attributed to be over-speeding.

Almost 23,000 poultry birds kept 2 epicentres, Siddharth Poultry Farm and Nature Poultry Farm, have been culled in the last three days.

The experts claim that the vaccine is being smuggled into India illegally. The experts maintain that the sudden situation of H5N8 in Haryana, especially in the Barwala poultry belt, could have been detected earlier if the departments concerned had remained vigil.

On the first day of the exercise, no one from the administration was present at the site of epicenter, Siddharth Poultry Farm in Kheri village, till 11 am— with the area not even cordoned off.

The ‘infected’ zone is within a kilometre radius of two poultry farms whose samples have tested positive for avian influenza.

The area within the radius of one-kilometre from the two poultry farms, whose poultry birds have tested H5N8 positive’, was declared as “Infected Zone” and the area from 1 km to 10 km as “Surveillance Zone”.

While results from labs are awaited, shopkeepers continue to sell produce. The average price of 1kg chicken, which used to be Rs 30 to Rs 40 during normal days, has fallen to Rs 10 to Rs 15.

“A review of all the samples collected in the last one month from various poultry farms situated in Barwala was called for by the officers concerned. The process is being reviewed,” maintained sources in the animal husbandry department.

An Eurasian Coot, also known as Common Coot, a winter visitor, was found dead in the lake on Tuesday. Two carcasses out of five were sent for examination to the Regional Diseases Diagnosis Laboratory (RDDL), Jalandhar.

The 15 poultry farms have witnessed high mortality of poultry birds. On January 3, a team of Haryana Animal Husbandry and Dairying department had sent 80 samples, with merely four carcasses of the dead birds to RDDL, Jalandhar, for an examination.

The Regional Disease Diagnosis Laboratory (RDDL) officials say that several farm owners have been trying to underplay the high mortality among poultry birds.

Although the poultry farm owners attributed the sudden mortality to severe cold season, experts maintained that the high mortality along with reports from mortality of birds, including migratory, in other states is a matter of concern.

The owner of a poultry farm, which saw at least 7,500 birds dying, requesting anonymity, said, “We are afraid that if any disease is diagnosed during the samples' examination, we will have to face a huge loss again.

The sero survey includes extraction of blood samples, nozzle samples and samples of the waste of birds from different areas.

There are around 110 poultry farms in the Barwala belt in Panchkula. The mass mortality of poultry birds was reported in about two dozen poultry farms. The mortality among the birds is being reported since December 5, 2020.

The pandemic allowed the gap between the police and the general public to be bridged

Faced with a lockdown and the attendant risk of infection, criminals lay low, and the crime rate plummeted, but no sooner did the unlock happen than the gun-wielding goons came out.

Usually, six toy trains including the Vistadome and holiday special run on Kalka-Shimla route. But this year, due to the Covid-19, only two tarins are plying on the route.

Usually, vehicle-lifter gangs dispose of the vehicles stolen from Chandigarh in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. It is for the first time when a gang involved in disposing of vehicles in J&K was busted.

Sukhna wetland is spread over 565 acres. The catchment area of Sukhna wetland, spreading over 10,395 acres as finalised by the Survey of India, includes 2,525 acres of Haryana and 684 acres of Punjab.