Jind, October 13
The procurement of cotton in the district has picked up pace. A total of about 2,500 quintals of the crop have been procured at the local grain market so far.

Though the total arrival and procurement has been lower than that of last year, the rates fetched have jumped by about 50 per cent this season, thanks to the decision of the government to allow cotton export.

Meanwhile the non-procurement of the bajra by official agencies in the district is forcing the farmers to sell the crop at rates lower than the MSP of Rs 880 per quintal.

Sources in the grain market say the sale and procurement of the cotton crop has gone up sharply in the past few days, owing to the dry and sunny weather.

“The total arrival and procurement of cotton is likely to surpass the total target achieved last year,”claimed Sandeep Malik, a commission agent. He said the dry season in the recent past had helped the crop to bloom.

Though there was some moisture in the harvested crop, the quality was likely to improve in the coming days. Claiming that the crop this year was fetching almost 40 to 50 per cent higher rates in comparison to last year, he said this was mainly due to late arrival of the crop and the announcement made by the government to lift the ban on export. He said the highest rate fetched for cotton in the past two days was Rs 4,649 per quintal in comparison to Rs 3,400 per quintal last year. Meanwhile, resentment is brewing among bajra growers with the Haryana Warehousing Corporation failure to lift the crop at the MSP of Rs 880 per quintal.

This has been mainly due to the boycott of the commission agents, who are demanding release of their commission allegedly held back by the corporation for the purchases made last year.

“This has forced us to sell bajra at Rs 820 per quintal to private parties,” claimed Ishwar Singh of Kharainti village in the district.

Karnal: The arrival of paddy in various mandis in Karnal has picked up and till date more than 1.67 lakh tonnes of paddy has been purchased but the response of rice millers is lukewarm. Only 19,078 tonnes (about 12 per cent) has been purchased by the millers.

The maximum purchase of 64,469 tonnes has been by the FCI, 66,150 by HAFED, 10,107 AGRO and 4,750 by the Haryana Warehouse Corporation.

The arrival of paddy in the market here has been 61,090 tonnes and in Assandh, Indri, Nissing, Gharaunda and Traveri markets 20,350 tonnes, 19,400 tonnes, 18,050 tonnes, 14,011 tonnes and 11,650 tonnes, respectively, in the past 10 days. Karnal Deputy Commisioner Neelam Pradeep Kasani said the procurement was smooth.

He requested the farmers not to bring paddy with moisture content extending the permissible limit as the same could not be purchased and the farmers would be put to needless inconvenience.

The millers had earlier refused to purchase paddy on behalf of government agencies till their demands are accepted.They felt that instead of feeling obliged to them for undertaking the procurement task, officials of the agencies penalise d them.

The agencies had imposed heavy holding charges on the millers for not delivering the rice to the FCI within the prescribed time limit.

Fatehabad, October 13
Close on the heels of an expectant woman losing her baby to the alleged greed of an auxiliary nurse midwife in Community Health Centre, Bhuna, two expectant women were refused delivery facilities in Fatehabad.

Though the health authorities have been assigning different reasons for not providing delivery facilities to the two women, the kin, from very poor families in both cases, have sent their complaints to the state government and the district authorities.

In the first case, doctors in the general hospital, Fatehabad, allegedly developed cold feet on learning that the woman, who came for delivery, had an HIV positive status, while in the second case, an expectant woman could not get delivery facilities in two hospitals in the district.

In the second case, Surinder Singh, elder brother of the woman’s husband, has alleged that his sister-in-law was denied delivery facilities only because doctors at the CHC, Bhuna, wanted him to withdraw a complaint made to Health Minister Geeta Bhukkal earlier in some other case, which he refused.

Suman, wife of Sonu, a construction labourer, who was shifted to the CHC, Bhuna, after she had labour pains late in the evening on October 11, said a complaint in the shape of an affidavit had been given by Sonu’s brother Surinder to various authorities.

She was shifted to the CHC again yesterday as doctors had told the family to bring her the next morning.

However, after keeping the woman for a few hours, the doctors informed the family to take her to the general hospital, Fatehabad, as it was case of obstetrics delivery.

Showing copies of a complaint given to the Health Minister in August this year, Surinder alleged that the attitude of the health authorities in the CHC was pathetic, when his wife was expecting a baby two months ago.

He alleged that when the family took Suman to the general hospital in Fatehabad, doctors did not care to examine the patient and told them to take her to Hisar or Agroha.

He alleged that despite the free ambulance facility provided by the state government, the family was made to pay for transportation from Bhuna to Fatehabad.

“We have been treated shabbily by doctors only because we are poor,” Surinder said in a choked voice.

Family members of Suman were, however, all praise for Dr Dolly Gambhir, a medical officer in the general hospital, who accompanied the family to the medical college at Agroha merely on humanitarian grounds, though she had completed her duty hours.

In the other case, doctors allegedly refused to entertain a case of delivery as the woman was found to be HIV positive.

The woman, a resident of local Baghichi Mohalla, was later shifted to the PGIMS, Rohtak, by her kin.

The Civil Surgeon, Dr OP Arya, confirmed having received complaints and said he was conducting an inquiry.

He said in Suman’s case, the doctors in the general hospital had told him that she suffered from high blood pressure and hence conducting a caesarian at Fatehabad was not safe.

Gurgaon, October 13
Disappointed at the state government’s inaction over their repeated complaints regarding allotment of public land to private parties at throwaway rates, several residents’ welfare associations here have urged the CBI and the CVC to intervene in the matter.

In separate letters addressed to CBI Director Ashwani Kumar and Central Vigilance Commissioner chief PJ Thomas, representatives of the town’s different welfare associations have alleged that chunks of prime public land in Gurgaon have been allotted to private parties for developing amusement parks, resulting in huge losses to the stateexchequer.ointing out that the Haryana Home Secretary, the Director of Tourism and a former Adviser to the Chandigarh Adminis trator had been booked by the CBI and the CVC in a corruption case for favouring M/s Unitech Limited for allotting 73.65 acres in Sarangpur village at a throwaway price for a theme-cum-amusement park, the residents’ welfare associations maintain that the land deals in Gurgaon show a similar pattern.

Hence, a thorough probe into the land deals was a must. Giving details of some of the “shady” land deals, they point out that a 25-acre plot in the Sector 29 City Centre has been given on lease at a price of Rs 56.25 crore.

They say the actual base auction value of the plot is Rs 2, 016 crore.

“Similarly, a 17-acre plot in Sector 52 has been given away at a lease price of Rs 38.25 crore whereas its actual base auction value is Rs 548 crore and a 16-acre plot in Sector 52, with a base auction value of Rs 514 crore, has been given away for Rs 36 crore,” they maintain. Gurgaon Citizens Council (GCC) president RS Rathee, Ardee City general secretary TN Kaul and Sushant Lok RWA president PK Bhatia, have urged the CBI and the Central Vigilance Commission to get the matter investigated at the earliest and take appropriate action at the earliest.

Hisar, October 13
As many as 45 residents of Mirchpur village in the district have alleged that they are being forced to sign blank affidavits to weaken the case against perpetrators of violence against Dalits in the village in April last.

A Dalit teenaged girl stricken by polio and her father were killed in the violence.

AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi had paid a surprise visit to Mirchpur post-violence.

A deputation of residents called on SDM Subhash Gauba at Hansi yesterday and submitted a memorandum, seeking action against those putting pressure on members of the community to sign affidavits to weaken the case against the perpetrators of the Mirchpur violence.

The memorandum said since the case was at the evidence stage, these affidavits had assumed significance.

Seeking a probe and recovery of such affidavits, the villagers said this was a blatant attempt to undermine the judicial process.

Some villagers said they were still living with relatives in Fatehabad district because of the pressure being put on them by some members of the dominant community. They also staged a demonstration inside the tehsil office.

Karnal, October 13
A petty quarrel between children four months ago transformed into a bitter feud between two families of Mangalpur village in Karnal, leading to a violent clash last evening in which one person was killed and seven were injured.

A group attacked Sandeep, a plumber, while he was going home. His family members came to his rescue, but were also attacked. Babu Ram (40) father of Sandeep, was killed. Seven others were injured.

The assailants were armed with swords, axes, khukris and sickles. Babu Ram was hit on the head. His wife Sumitra, Sundeep, Murli, Rashmi Devi and Ram Charan have been admitted to the trauma centre at Karnal. Vinod and Sunil have been admitted to a private hospital.

Ram Charan, brother of the deceased, alleged there was a clash four months back also. Then too the same group had beaten up family members of Sandeep.

He said the attack was pre-planned and the assailants had waylaid Sandeep.

Police station in charge Gorakh Pal Rana said a case had been registered against Rajendra, Ravinder, Pankaj, Kirpal, Ranbir, Ram Niwas, Satish, Ram Niwas, Yogesh, Pradeep and Sandeep under Sections 302,324,323,148 and 149 of the IPC.

Eight persons had been arrested.

Nilokheri: Tension gripped Nilokheri town as three youths brutally thrashed a youth following a petty altercation while Ram Lila was being staged in the town late Tuesday night.

The 18-year-old victim reached the police station with his family and supporters.

He identified all three attackers and demanded their arrest.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, the police , at first reluctant to take action, registered a case under Sections 323, 295-A and 34 of the IPC against Rajat, Vipin and Harish, all local residents.

Panchkula, October 13
Traffic violators seem to be having a field day in the home district of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Data compiled by the Haryana police between 2005 and 2010 revealed that no amount of fine has been realised from the traffic violators during the period from Rohtak.

On the other hand in Ambala district, the constituency of his arch rival and Union Tourism Minister Kumari Selja, a fine of Rs 2.89 crore has been realised from 97,071 persons for various traffic violations.

As per the information sought under the RTI Act by Vijay Bansal, Patron, Shivalik Vikas Manch (SVM), from the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Traffic and Highways, Karnal, the traffic police in Rohtak slapped 9,723 challans from January 1, 2005 to August 31, 2010, but no fine was realised from the traffic violators.

Even in the small district like Panchkula with a population of about 6 lakh and more literacy rate than Rohtak district, about 24,409 challans were slapped on traffic violators and a sum of Rs 52.2 lakh was realised during the past five years.

Similarly, the traffic police in Yamunanagar district had challaned 53,416 persons during the same period and realised Rs 3.96 crore as fine for indulging in various traffic violations.

Bansal said it seemed that there were more “law-abiding” citizens in the hometown of the Chief Minister. He said a reign of terror has been let loose in Rohtak and even the police did not dare to book or fine the traffic violators.

A total of Rs 738 crore was realised from the Shivalik area while no amount was realised from traffic violators in Rohtak district, he quipped.

Panipat, October 13
A local court has sentenced three persons, including the son of the victim, to life term for hatching a conspiracy and killing a man to grab his property.

As per the records, Ram Naresh, son of Karan Singh, had some feud with his father over the ancestral property.

Unable to convince his father to transfer the property in his name, Naresh hatched a conspiracy with his two accomplices to eliminate Karan Singh in 2008.

He along with Rambir and Narinder took Karma Singh to Shamli in the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh on some pretext and made him consume alcohol.

After Karan Singh lost his consciousness, the three strangled him to death and dumped his body in Shamli.

The UP police found the body and registered a case against unidentified persons.

Later, the police managed to identify the deceased and got in touch with the Panipat police. As the matter related to the local police, the case was shifted here and a case was registered at the Chandni Bagh police station, which started the investigation, following which three persons were arrested.

After hearing the contentions put up by the prosecution and the defence counsels, the court concluded that there was enough evidence on record to hold the three guilty of the crime.

Kurukshetra, October 13
The supplementary examinations of various undergraduate classes of Kurukshetra University will commence on October 19.

The roll numbers of all candidates have been dispatched, according to the Controller of Examinations YP Goswami.

“Any candidate who does not receive the roll number slip, may collect a duplicate slip from the result branch concerned from October 15 onwards during office hours.

For this, the candidate must bring two attested copies of his/her recent photograph along with an authentic documentary proof of having submitted the examination admission form, fee and other relevant documents to the university,” the Controller of Exams said.

He said all was in place for the exams.

Sirsa, October 13
More than two weeks after Divisional Forest Officer (Production) Sanjiv Chaturvedi exposed a nexus between his department’s officials and some outsiders for the sale of sheesham in the open market, the police today registered a criminal case against four persons.

Cases under Sections 405, 406 and 409 (criminal breach of trust), 463, 464, 465 and 466 (forgery) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC have been registered in the Kalanwali police station against Umed Singh, a guard, Banwari Lal, a group D official, Lekhraj, a contractor, and Vineet, an outsider, for the sale of government timber in the open market.

Chaturvedi had received a tip-off that a consignment of sheesham of the department was being taken to Malaut town in Punjab for illegal sale. He constituted a seven-member team led by range officer from Hisar Prithvi Raj Singh, which recovered 15 cubic metres of sheesham worth Rs 3.5 lakh that had been sold illegally.

Chaturvedi also found irregularities in the records of department in Sirsa.

The DFO (Production) suspended Umed Singh and wrote against range officer Dalip Singh to his higher authorities after the timber was recovered from Punjab.

Chandigarh, October 13
Jumping parole has, apparently, become a norm in the state. In all, 244 convicts released on parole or furlough from jails in the state did not surrender after the completion of their parole period. The assertion was made before the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Haryana Director-General (Prisons) Rakesh Malik today.

In his affidavit, Malik said steps to recapture the parole jumpers were also being made. All jail superintendents in the state have been vested with power to get a criminal case registered against the parole/furlough jumpers after 10 days from the date of expiry of parole/furlough period under the Haryana Good Conduct (Temporary Release) Act 1988.

All jail superintendents have registered the cases in police stations concerned against parole jumpers. The list of absconders has been forwarded to the Director-General of Police and he has been requested through a letter dated September 16 to take necessary steps for their apprehension. The information was provided during a resumed hearing of a public interest litigation.