Chandigarh, February 13
The Army is planning to establish a new military station adjoining Kurukshetra in Haryana. Headquarters Western Command and the state are examining the feasibility of the project.

The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt-Gen Daljeet Singh, said the Army possessed about 1,100 acres of military farm land at Vir Gudri village and was intending to develop it as a military station, for which consultations were on with the state government.

He was addressing a joint press conference with the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, on the conclusion of the Civil Military Liaison Conference (CML) at Chandimandir today. Top officers from the state government and the Western Command attended the conference held annually to discuss issues of mutual interest.

The Chief Minister also announced a slew of incentives for armed forces veterans and para-military personnel. He said defence colonies were being developed in Rohtak, Jind, Rewari and Jhajjar by the Haryana Urban Development Authority and 10 per cent plots would be reserved for ex-servicemen in the group housing societies.

The Chief Minister said the land had been allotted to set up poly clinics in Rewari, Jind, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad, Sonepat and Faridabad under the Ex-Servicemen's Contributory Health Scheme. Besides, land had also been allotted at concessional rates for a defence services officers institute in Faridabad. He added that he had also written to the Union Defence Minister for setting up a military school at Matanhale.

The Chief Minister announced that ex-gratia payment would be made to all para-military personnel at par with the armed forces. He said World War II veterans who were not receiving any pension form the Centre or the state would be paid Rs 800 per month instead of Rs 500. There were about 3,800 such veterans in the state. Similarly, allowance for ex-servicemen who were not receiving any pension had been increased to Rs 600 per month.

The Chief minister also exempted items being sold through CSD canteens from VAT and said 25 per cent relief was being given on excise duty applicable on liquor sold through canteens. He said the state government had also urged the Army to open more CSD canteens at Meham, Gohana, Bahadurgarh, Tosham, Kanina and Palwal for the benefit of the ex-servicemen residing there.

On the issue of the proposed by-pass for the Chandimandir military station as an alternate to the existing Panchkula-Pinjore national highway stretch which bifurcates the military station, Gen Daljeet Singh said two options were being studied. The first was to construct a new road along the east bank of the Ghaggar and, in case this did not work out, the other option was to build several fly-overs across the present stretch to link the two parts of the military station for facilitating easy movement. 

Badli, (Jhajjar), February 17
The main accused in the yesterday’s carnage at Badli village in this district, Surjeet, has reportedly confessed to his crime, police sources told here today.

Surjeet set his parents, brother and an eight-year old niece on fire with the help of his wife and some in-laws on the night of Thursday. He was admitted to a hospital in Delhi as he and his wife also suffered burns.

Meanwhile, the post-mortem examination reports of the victims have confirmed that they were burnt alive after being doused with patrol. Earlier, the police had said that they were killed by sharp-edged weapons and then set on fire.

The bodies of victims, retired Army man Sultan Singh (60), his wife Shakuntala (58), his son Sukhvinder (30) and Suman (8), were handed over to their relatives today. Their last rites were performed at the village in the evening.

The assailants spilled patrol inside the room and also throw it on their relatives, who were sleeping, through a window and set the house on fire.

The sister of Surjeet told the police that seven persons, including Surjeet, his wife Pushpa, Pushpa’s father Ramkumar and brother Shri Bhagwan, deceased Sukhvinder’s wife Seeta (who is sister of Pushpa), Pushpa’s brother’s wife Maya, and Sultan’s brother Seva Singh were involved in the crime. None of the accused has been arrested so far.

She said Surjeet had been demanding a share in his father’s pension and he hatched a plan to kill Sultan when latter had refused to give him a share in the pension.

She said his father had settled all issues regarding the distribution of the land and other family properties. The pension was the sole reason behind yesterday’s carnage.

However, hushed voices in the villages have indicated that illicit relationships could be the reason behind the incident. The fact that one of the deceased Sukhvinder’s wife was aware of the plan in advance, is an intriguing aspect in the case.

Chandigarh, February 17
The ground water table in Haryana is depleting gradually. Though there is brakish water surplus in the central and southern parts of the state, scientists should evolve a strategy to utilise this water, instead of letting it go waste.

This was a consensus reached between scientists from all over Haryana, during an interaction on the application of science and technology in everyday life. The interaction was organised here by the Department of Science and Technology, Haryana. The Vice-Chancellor of GJU, Hisar, Dr R P Bajpai, chaired the session, while the Financial Commissioner, Science and Technology, Mr S K Saksena, and the Director, Science and Technology, Mr D D Gautam, were also present.

It was proposed that a strategy be evolved for utilising this brakish (saline) water in construction work or housing needs. It was also felt that there was an immediate need to have effective water harvesting structures in the state to contain the depleting ground water levels.

Other than the optimum utilisation of the existing resources, the scientific brains from streams like agriculture, academics and medicine felt that the overall development of science and technology, too, was dependent on its application in daily life.

Dr Prem Vark, Director, IIT, Roorkee, said there was need for sensitising the scientific community to reach out to the common man.

Dr A.K. Bhatnagar, Advisor, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), opined that more effective transfer of technology was from academics to industry and from industry to research centres."We need to create a scientific atmosphere in the society.” he said.

Chandigarh, February 17
The Haryana Government today took a decisive step to break the stalemate between the Food Corporation of India(FCI) and rice millers of the state. As a result of the stalemate the delivery of rice to the FCI by the millers had come to a standstill for the past several days.

The Union Food Ministry had relaxed specifications of the paddy to be purchased by the FCI or other government agencies on its behalf last year in view of the then prevailing weather conditions. However, the relaxation did not cover the period of five days from October 1, 2005, and that from November 16 to November 30, 2005. Similar relaxation was announced for Punjab by the Centre. But in that state the relaxation covered the entire period of paddy procurement.

In Haryana, since the specifications were relaxed later, certain period had remained uncovered.

The FCI was demanding from the Haryana millers that they should deliver rice for the uncovered period as per unrelaxed specifications. The millers were, however, insisting that since the quality of paddy procured during the uncovered period was similar to that procured as per the relaxed specification, they should be allowed to deliver rice to the FCI for the uncovered period also as per the relaxed specifications. The delivery of rice made from the paddy procured by the government agencies had been suspended following the dispute.

While relaxing the specifications, the Centre had said that while half of the financial burden would be borne by it, the other half should be borne by the state governments. The FCI referred the matter to the Haryana Government because its concurrence was required for bearing the financial burden if the specifications were relaxed for the previously uncovered period also.

The sources say the officers were of the view that since the government agencies had purchased good quality paddy during the uncovered period, no relaxation should be given to the millers. However, the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Chander Mohan, who also holds the portfolio of Food and Supplies, and the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, overruled the objections raised by the officers ‘‘in the interest of the farmers and the rice industry of the state.’’

Mr Hooda today directed the department to ask the FCI to accept rice as per relaxed specifications. The state government will have to bear a financial burden of about Rs 13.50 crore to purchase damaged paddy. 

Chandigarh, February 17
The Union Panchayati Raj Minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyer, said here today that to provide additional financial resources to the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs), talks were being held with the World Bank and the UNDP.

Mr Aiyer, who was speaking after releasing a booklet on “Activity Mapping for Devolution of Powers to the PRIs in Haryana”, said a backward area development fund would also be established in the next financial year to provide financial means for the development of backward areas. The Centre would also start a Gram Swarajya programme for providing infrastructure for the PRIs, including e-governance.

To ensure that the benefits of development reached the common man in villages, the Planning Commission had decided that the 11th Plan would be based on the Five Year and Annual District Plans as well as the PRI plans.

Appreciating the steps taken by the Haryana Government for empowering the PRIs, Mr Aiyer said Haryana was the first state in the country which had simultaneously provided three “Fs” — functions, functionaries and funds — to the PRIs. He said Haryana was again the first state in the country to entrust the work of major irrigation to the PRIs, though the Constitution talked of only minor irrigation projects in this respect. He said he would write to the other Chief Ministers to emulate Haryana.

Today’s document was prepared in pursuance to an MOU signed by the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Mr Aiyer on August 22 last year to strengthen the PRIs at the grassroots level.

Mr Aiyer said in the past 13 years, the Panchayati Raj Act had enabled people to elect about 32 lakh representatives of theirs. Earlier the biggest democracy in the world had only about 5,000 directly elected representatives of the people. Out of these about 13 lakh were women representatives.

Mr Hooda said various powers had been given to the PRIs in the Departments of Food and Supplies, Health, Public Health, Irrigation, Agriculture, Forests, Animal Husbandry, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Women and Child Development.

Panipat, February 17
Activists of the BJP staged dharna and a rally against the Hooda government here today. Leaders of the party gathered outside the office of the DC and submitted a memorandum against the state government.

Mr Ganeshi Lal, state BJP chief criticised the Congress party. He said that black-marketing of necessary items had increased manifolds in the country. Terming the Hooda government as insensitive, he cited the example of a retrenched policeman who committed suicide at Sonepat after the government failed to give jobs to those shunted out of the Haryana Industrial Police Force.

He said that the government was befooling public by mere making announcement. He said that the state government had promised employment but nothing had been on this issue.

The state BHP chief said that Hooda government had announced to construct a canal from Bhakra but Punjab Irrigation Minister, Lal Singh was declining publicly the offer. He said that economic condition of the farmers was deteriorating due to policies of the government.

Senior BJP leader and former Home Minister for State, I.D. Swami cautioned the Congress for working against government’s interests. He said that owing to poor policies, black-marketing and licence quota raj was rampant.

Sonepat, February 17
Two persons died on the spot and one was injured seriously when they were knocked down by a jeep on the Bahalgarh road today morning. The police has arrested the jeep driver and injured Sanjiv Sharma of Baghpat in UP has been referred in the PGIMS, Rohtak.

The victims — Satish and Deepak of Abohar village in Rohtak district were coming to Sonepat on a motor cycle. Ahead of them was Sanjiv on his motor cycle. The jeep which was going at full speed towards Bahalgarh went out of control of the driver after the tyre burst in front wheel. — OC