Chandigarh, November 4
Investors are not impressed with the the pro-landowner aquisition policy announced by the Chief Minister yesterday. The new policy has made Haryana one of the most expensive investment destinations.

Observers say that the hiked land rates in the state could be a deterrent to private investors in days to come.

“This policy has made buying land a very expensive proposition which could drive away investment from Haryana. Compared to other states where a letter of intent alone is enough for permission to acquire land, Haryana may not fit the budget anymore.

“Investors may be tempted to explore other destinations thereby affecting job opportunities,” observers feel.

While private builders may shy away in view of the enhanced rates, government projects, too, would end up being much more expensive. Says an official: “It is usually government projects that enhance land prices because of the development in that pocket. The high rates may end up taking projects, both government and private, to the interiors of the state.” The common sentiment among officials is that the high rates will smoothen the process of land acquisition which is needed to bring about development, especially in the expanding limits of urban pockets.

“There is no substitute for acquiring land for development. This will minimise the conflict land acquisition generally generates,” said another official.

Besides, since most land deals are under-valued with black money exchanging hands, the new policy will reduce black money.

The government will, hence, be able to earn more income via land registration.

The officials maintain that the new policy will not adversely impact investment or employment.

Chandigarh, November 4
The new land acquisition policy has been flayed by the Opposition, be it the INLD or the BJP. The main Opposition party, the INLD, says the government has given the landowners a raw deal. The BJP has termed it as a mere “eyewash”.Both parties have demanded compensation in tune with the market rate or on a par with that given to farmers in Punjab for their land acquired for an international airport.

The leader of the Opposition, Om Prakash Chautala, says that the enhanced rates of compensation are not enough, with the minimum floor rate ranging between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 12 lakh per acre.“When the Punjab Government can give Rs 1.5 crore per acre to its farmers, why are our farmers getting astep-motherly treatment? The policy seems designed to benefit builders and the land mafia rather than the farmers,” he said in a statement. The president of the state unit of the BJP, Krishan Pal Gurjar, said the government was committing a fraud on the farmers by offering them such low rates. “A farmer is getting Rs 3 crore in the open market as cost for his land in Gurgaon. Compared to this, the government is giving only Rs 72 lakh which is inclusive of all incentives and the solatium.

“This amounts to cheating the farmers. The rates in Panchkula and Faridabad are low too,” he said. Instead of increasing annuity every year for 33 years at Rs 750 per year, Gurjar said the landowners would be better off with a lumpsum. “Let the landowner get his due in one go,” he suggested. 

Sirsa, November 4
The state Agriculture Department has been contemplating ban orders on at least five brands of Bt cotton seed, which have been found responsible for the low yield of cotton crop in the state this year.

The deputy directors of the Agriculture Department in all cotton-producing districts of the state have been asked to carry out survey of loss caused to the cotton crop due to the poor quality of seeds in their respective districts due to the use of these brands.

The survey, according to sources, is in progress in 11 districts of the state.

Depending upon the outcome of their survey, the department is likely to take a decision to ban these brands for the next year.

According to sources in the Agriculture Department, the authorities have so far identified five such brands.

Leaf curl virus (LCV), alias “Patta Maror”, had attacked the cotton crop in several districts of the state this year. The LCV damaged the leaves of cotton plants by twisting them resulting in withering away of the plant by decline in photosynthesis process, which is essential for the growth of plants.

Initially, the agriculture authorities maintained that the effect of the LCV was limited to two or three districts, but later it had spread to all districts in the state.

It was also found that plants grown through certain brands of Bt cottonseeds were more prone to the attack by the virus, while others had better resistance to it. The virus had hit the yield badly.

“I had grown cotton on 30 acres in the hope that I will reap rich harvest like last year. However, the per acre yield has come down to six quintals against last year’s yield of 10 to 11 quintals per acre,” said Gurdial Mehta, who had grown Bt cotton on his land in Panjuana village.

The plight of other farmers in Sirsa, Fatehabad and other cotton-producing districts of the state is no better and had the prices of cotton not increased this year, the farmers would have found it difficult to recover the cost of input.

Joint Director (cotton), Agriculture Department, Haryana, Ravi Chander Punia, while admitting that the yield was poor this year, claimed that the overall damage throughout the state was not more than 10 per cent.

Fatehabad, November 4
Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti that is spearheading the agitation against the acquisition of land in Gorakhpur, said today that their protest would continue despite the new land policy.

“We are firm in our stand and will not give an inch of our fertile land for setting up of a nuclear plant, even if government offers us Rs 1 crore an acre,” maintained Siwach. Ram Swaroop, another farmer, described the new rates as adding insult to injury. The farmers said they would observe a “black Diwali”.

However, Satbir Singh Siwach, president of the Sports Club, Gorakhpur, welcomed the hike in floor rates.“The new floor rates will give a reason to many to rethink their stand,” he said. Krishan Swaroop, state president of the All-India Kisan Sabha, said the very fact that the Hooda government had revised the floor rates negated the earlier claim of the government that Haryana’s land acquisition policy was the best in the country. 

Sirsa, November 4
Sitting in a classroom, Rajni, a student of Class VII student of Government Girls High School, Sherpura, is all ears as she is taught the nuances of fabric painting along with other girls of her school.

For Rajni, learning was never interesting till classes in cutting, tailoring and fabric painting were started in her school. Ditto for Darshna and Niranjana, her schoolmates.

Under the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL), Government of India, to reach out to the “hardest to reach” girls, such hobby classes have been opened in 21 model cluster schools (MCS) under the Nathusari Chopta and Rania blocks. Besides, childcare day centres have been set up in 42 primary schools of the district for children in the age group of 2 - 5.

“The NPEGEL is an important component of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which provides additional support for enhancing girls’ education,” explained Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan.

The programme provides for development of a “model school” in every cluster with intense community mobilisation. Gender sensitisation of teachers, gender-sensitive learning material and need-based incentives like stationery, work books and uniform are some of the efforts made under the programme.

the DC said the Government of India was committed to achieving universalisation of elementary education by 2010. This entailed a special thrust on girls’ education. Statistics revealed that despite the efforts made so far, gender disparities persist in enrollment of girls, especially in rural areas and among the disadvantaged groups.

The disparity was more acute in the enrollment of girls belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes at the upper primary level, he said.

The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan had limited finances which were mainly spent on providing free textbooks to the girl students. So the NPEGEL has been formulated for providing additional support for educating the underprivileged/disadvantaged girls at the elementary level.

Madhu Mittal, District Project Coordinator, said so far 3,050 girls studying in Class VI, VII and VIII had been given training in tailoring, embroidery and fabric painting.

Besides, efforts were made to engage their interest in subjects like mathematics. 

Faridabad, November 4
Irked over the alleged indifference of the government machinery on the one hand and arbitrariness of the managements of the private schools in raising the fee structure on the other, the parents have decided to intensify their agitation.

The parents, who have been agitating under the aegis of the Haryana Abhibhavak Ekta Manch for more than a year, have alleged collusion between the managements of the schools and the government machinery.

Monica Coley, whose daughter studies in a private school here, lamented that schools had been increasing the fee structure in utter violation of a July 6, 2009, directive from the office of the Commissioner-cum-Director-General, Education, Haryana. In 2009-10, the schools increased the fee between 30 and 40 per cent.

The parents from Faridabad, along with their counterparts from other districts of the state, had staged a demonstration outside the residence of Education Minister Geeta Bhukal in Jhajjar recently and submitted a memorandum to her.

They alleged that private schools had been getting tacit support from the government, which had encouraged them to breach the norms with impunity.

According to General Secretary of the Haryana Abhibhavak Ekta Manch Kailash Sharma, the parents, who have already staged dharnas at all district headquarters, have now decided to agitate outside the residences of MLAs and state presidents of the parties from November 10-30 throughout the state. The manch along with the office-bearers of the All-India Parents’ Association, parents and children will stage demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on December 3. Thereafter, a memorandum will be submitted to the PM urging for a central rule to check commercialisation of education by private schools. 

Panipat, November 4
Power engineers in the state have decided to hold a protest on November 15 to press upon the state government to fulfil their long-pending demands.

The engineers will wear black badges to register their protest against the failure of the power utilities to remove pay anomalies, the government’s decision to introduce the franchisee system and failure to restructure the discoms.

The decision was taken at the annual general body meeting of the Haryana Power Engineers Association that was held in Israna here recently.

During the meeting, a five-member joint coordination committee comprising engineers from all four utilities was also formed to take up the issue of the pay anomalies and introduction of the franchisee system with the power utilities and the state government.

At the meeting that was presided over by RS Chhokar, president of the erstwhile HSEB Engineers Association, issues related to the engineers and improvement of consumer services in the power utilities were discussed. The meeting was attended by over 350 engineers from all over the state.

Hardeep Sangwan, general secretary of the Thermal Engineers Association, said it was regrettable that the pay scales of assistant engineers, particularly in Haryana, were far lower than the prevailing pay scales of assistant engineers in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. He said the issue was required to be taken up in a consolidated manner with the state government since the power engineers in the state were performing similar duties as their counterparts in other northern states.

The pay scales of assistant engineers had always been better than their counterparts in the state. However, it was for the first time that even pay scales given to the state government assistant engineers had been denied to them. The assistant executive engineers had been denied class I pay scales in pay band 3.

Daljit Singh said there was an acute threat to the distribution sector of the state as distribution franchisees in the high revenue earning circles of Gurgaon and Panipat were being introduced. 

Fatehabad, November 4
Fifteen members of a labourer’s extended family, including seven children between the age of two and 10 years, were rescued from a brick-kiln by a warrant officer of the Punjab and Haryana High Court last evening.

The family was being kept as bonded labour for the past 45 days.

Arun Luthra, a warrant officer appointed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, accompanied by SDM JK Abhir and a police party, reached the kiln situated at Nahla village and rescued the labourers - three women, five men and seven children.

A labourer, Raja Ram, a resident of Guhla Cheeka, had filed a petition in the High Court alleging that the brick-kiln owner had kept 15 members of his extended family as bonded labour.

He alleged that the 15 members, including women and children, were living under abysmal conditions without sufficient food and without access to doctors in case of illness.

He had alleged that the brick-kiln owner was not paying them wages, though they had prepared over 50,000 bricks.

When the warrant officer and the SDM searched the slums in the brick-kiln, they found Raja Ram’s wife Kamlesh, son Gautam, a woman, Laxmi, Des Raj, Shankar and the others, besides seven children.

“The labourers were being kept in inhuman conditions with no arrangement of light in their huts,” said the SDM.

The families had no “atta” or other eatables in their jhuggis and the moment Raja Ram reached there with the authorities, two small kids ran towards him asking “Papa, roti laye kya?” (Papa, have you brought bread?).

Some children and a woman were sick and had no access to healthcare facilities.

Raja Ram had somehow escaped from the brick-kiln and approached the High Court to seek justice for his family members.

“As per the account given by Raja Ram, we made the kiln owner to pay Rs 15,000 as wages to the labourers, besides making him pay Rs 2,500 for medicines and Rs 1,500 for hiring some vehicle to ferry the labourers to their home,” the SDM said.

He said no action had been taken against the brick-kiln owner as Raja Ram was satisfied with the settlement.

Hisar, November 4
The complainant, Karan Singh, and three other Dalits, who are the main witnesses in the Mirchpur case, have refused to identify the accused.

The four appeared as witnesses in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Baljit Singh yesterday. When they were asked to identify the accused, all of them said they did not recognise anyone as a big mob had attacked their houses on April 21 resulting in the death of a Dalit teenaged polio-stricken girl and her father.

One by one all four witnesses gave identical statements that they did not recognise any of the accused.

The development has paved the way for restoration of peace and brotherhood in the village. Members of both communities met at the chaupal last night and decided to put the past behind them. They decided to celebrate Divali together.

Villagers said they had decided to forgive and forget and restore peace in the interests of the village community. 

Chandigarh, November 4
The state government has decided to spend Rs 1,200 crore for augmenting the basic infrastructure, employment generation and poverty alleviation in rural areas of the state during the current financial year.

The state government has also decided to deposit the grant given to the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) for development works directly in their accounts.

Stating this here recently, a spokesman for the Panchayat and Development Department said the PRIs were being given Rs 250 crore during the year, out of which 75 per cent was being given to the gram panchayats, 15 per cent to panchayat samitis and 10 per cent to zila parishads.

He said Haryana was the first state in the country to constitute the fourth State Finance Commission besides entrusting the work of 10 key departments to the Panchayati Raj Institutions to empower these institutions.

A sum of Rs 1,262.86 crore had been released for rural developmental works.

He said the state government had given a number of administrative and financial rights to the Panchayati Raj Institutions. A substantial raise had been made in the honorarium to the representatives of these institutions. The honorarium of the sarpanches and panches had been raised form Rs 1,000 per month and Rs 200 per month to Rs 1,500 and Rs 400 per month, respectively. The honorarium of the chairman of the panchayat samiti and its members from Rs 3,000 per month and Rs 500 to Rs 4,500 per month and Rs 1,000 per month, respectively.

The honorarium of the chairman of the zila parishad had been raised from Rs 4,000 per month to Rs 6,000 per month, that of deputy chairman from Rs 3,000 per month to Rs 4,500 per month and of members from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000. The cash in hand limit of sarpanches had also been raised form Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

The administrative sanction powers of the gram panchayat, panchayat samitis and zila parishads had been raised to Rs 5 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, respectively.

He said to pay a special attention to cleanliness in villages, a decision was taken on October 2, 2007, to appoint one safai karamchari in the village having a population of 2,000, two safai karmacharis in the village with a population of 2,001 to 5,000, four safai karmacharis in a village having a population of 5,001 to 1,000 and six safai karamcharis in a village having a population of over 10,000. As many as 10,500 persons were provided employment in this way through panchayats, he added.

He said the government had declared 98 villages as model villages and released a sum of Rs 420.38 crore. To obviate the habit of defecating in the open and to encourage the people to make cent per cent payment of their electricity bills “Mukhyamantri Swachhta Protsahan Puraskar Yojna” has been introduced.

Under the scheme, cash prizes were given to the panchayats securing first, second and third positions. He said under the gramin swachata programme, 12.30 lakh individual toilets for APL families, 5.51 lakh individual toilets for BPL families, 7,000 school toilets, 6,028 anganwari toilets, 1,091 women toilets and 85 sanitary marts and production centres have been constructed.

Rewari, November 4
Irrigation Minister Ajay Singh Yadav laid the foundation stone of the Khori minor at Khori village, 10 km from here, today.

He said the minor, which would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 7.80 crore by June 2011, would help irrigate about 3,500 acres in Khori and the surrounding Rajpura, Pranpura, Aliawas and Chimnawas villages.

Reiterating the state government’s commitment to provide canal water at the tail-end, he said work on minors, distributaries and other allied projects in the district was in progress.

On the Hansi-Butana Link Canal case, which is pending in the apex court, the minister hoped for a favourable verdict which, he said, would ensure the supply of canal water for 25 days in a month to the peasantry of south Haryana.

The minister said a Rs 18 crore Aravalli barrage project was also in the pipeline, which would benefit farmers of south Haryana. 

Gurgaon, November 4
A three-week-long focused campaign to eradicate measles in Haryana will be launched in five districts - Gurgaon, Jhajjar, Faridabad, Mewat and Palwal - from November 22.

This was revealed at a meeting of the District Task Force organised under the chairmanship of City Magistrate KK Gupta here yesterday.

The Task Force has been constituted for carrying out a campaign against measles in the district, Gupta said, adding that it was for the first time that such a campaign against measles was being launched in the state.

Children from nine months to 10 years of age will be given the second dose for protection from measles during the campaign, as the first dose is given during 9 to 12 months.

Dr Gurmeet, a representative of the World Health Organisation, informed the meeting that this was a one-time campaign and would cover 47 districts of 14 states in the country in its first phase.

The second phase would be launched in April 2011 to cover the remaining districts in the north-eastern states, besides Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

The third phase, proposed in September 2011, will cover the remaining districts of Haryana, Gujarat, Jharkhand, 50 per cent of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The City Magistrate asked the officials concerned of the Health, Education and Aanganwari departments to work in coordination to ensure the success of the campaign.

He directed the authorities concerned of the Education Department to issue strict instructions to all government-run as well as private schools to cooperate in this campaign and inform the parents of their students in advance.

Gupta pointed out that measles was a leading cause of childhood mortality and in India, 60,000 to 1 lakh deaths were reported due to measles every year.

“Post-measles corneal scars lead to permanent vision loss and complications due to measles include pneumonia, diarrhoea, otitis media and encephalitis,” he said, adding that looking into the after-effects of the disease, the Government of India had decided to launch the campaign to reduce the cases of measles by 2013.

The Civil Surgeon, Dr Praveen Garg, maintained that in Gurgaon, the estimated population of children in the age group of nine months to 10 years was more than 3.81 lakh. Of these, nearly 2 lakh children go to schools.

“A total of 393 teams will be required to cover these children in three weeks. Vaccination posts will be set up and the teams will not go door to door. Around 57 mobile teams would be needed to cover the migrant population in the far-flung areas of the district,” he added.

The District School Health Officer, Dr Saryu Sharma, said during the first week of the campaign, schools would be covered, while in the second week, the teams will reach out to community areas and in the third week, the hard-to-reach areas would be targeted.

WHO representatives Dr Konchi and Dr Marry from Atlanta, Dr Shanta from Sri Lanka, Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr Ashrudeen, and Deputy District Education Officer Ram Kumar Falswal were also present at the meeting. 

Hisar, November 4
The Hisar Autorickshaw Union has hiked the fare for the second time in a year. The minimum fare, which stood at Rs 5 a year ago, has now been doubled to Rs 10.

A spokesperson for the union said the hike had been necessitated by the increase in the prices of petrol and diesel. Besides, the maintenance cost of their vehicles had gone up several times during the past year. The union representatives met the Deputy Commissioner recently to inform him of the hike.

The union spokesperson said the DC neither approved the hike nor opposed it. It may be recalled that the union had raised the fare to Rs 7 a few months ago on the pretext of rise in fuel prices.

Ballabgarh, November 4
The police has registered two criminal cases against 200 persons under Section 307 for setting afire two dumpers, a police van and the office of Chief Parliamentary Secretary and local Congress MLA Sharda Rathore. ACP Badan Singh Rana said 20 persons had been named in the FIRs but no arrest had been made so far. The violence was triggered by the death of two Dalit women in an accident. The two were run over by a dumper. The mob went berserk when the police whisked away the driver to safety.

For ransacking the office of the Congress leader, 40 persons have been booked. Although the police was reluctant to give out the names of those who figured in the two FIRs, unofficial sources said a councillor and a BSP leader were among them. —TNS

Sonepat, November 4
With three gold and a bronze won by wrestlers of Sonepat district at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG), the Sports Department has had little option but to opt for a wrestling academy here instead of Rohtak.

Impressed by the performance of the wrestlers from the district, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had announced opening of the

academy at Sonepat during the “ Chak De Haryana- Chak De India” rally at RAi on November 1. At the National Junior Wrestling Championship in Rohtak about six months back, it was announced that a wrestling academy would be set up there. The prospects of a wrestling academy at Sonepat has brought much cheer to coaches at private akharas.

The academy would be a great help in honing the skills of young wrestlers, say CWG gold medallists Yogeshwar Dutt, Anil and Sanjay, world wrestling gold medallist Ramesh Gulia and wrestling coaches Om Prakash Dahiya and Raj Singh. Says District Sports Officer Prakash Singh Dahiya: “The local Subhash Stadium is the most convenient place for opening a wrestling academy. However, a few rooms and a multi-purpose hall will have to be constructed.

Bahaudrgarh, November 4
Member of Parliament from Rohtak Deepender Hooda today said the decision of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to revise the land acquisition policy would usher in more prosperity for the farming community.

He was interacting with mediapersons at a felicitation function organised at Mandhothi village here in honour of bronze medal winner in wrestling in the Commonwealth Games, Dharaminder Dalal.

“Now Haryana has become the first state where farmers will get Rs 45 lakh to 74 lakh per acre in lieu of acquisition of land and they will also get royalty at the rate of Rs 21,000 per year for 33 years,” said the MP, adding that the Chief Minister was aware of the problems of the farmers.

Complimenting Dharaminder Dalal for winning the bronze medal, Deepender said sportspersons of Haryana had proved that they were the best.