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Soon, four-lane corridor from Kotputli to Rohtak
8 school kids hurt in mishap
HC warning to cops on FIRs
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Sugarcane farmers block traffic
Fly menace in Barwala
Third instalment of arrears next month
Milking students
Will not compromise, says Mirchpur widow
Couple dies in mishap
Rathee is MDUTA president
UHBVN teams to check illegal load
Life term for murder
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Soon, four-lane corridor from Kotputli to Rohtak
Chandigarh, December 14 Addressing a press conference, here today, Haryana Public Works (Building and Roads) Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala claimed that the corridor would provide increased access, better connectivity and stimulate economic growth in the most backward regions. “To be built at an estimated project cost of Rs 1201.70 crore, the four-lane corridor to be constructed on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBOFT) basis will be 156 km long, running through Narnaul, Mahendragarh and Dadri, providing the much-needed bypass in Bhiwani and join the NH-10 at Rohtak,” Surjewala explained. Haryana had already sought permission from Rajasthan to construct a 6 km stretch through Kotpulti to connect NH-8 to Rai Malikpur in Haryana, the starting point of the corridor in the state. While this would help commuters, especially truckers from Rajasthan coming to Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and J&K to avoid the Delhi congestion and ease the situation there, the increased movement would stimulate economic activity in backward areas, the minister claimed. “The Planning Commission has approved a maximum viability gap funding (VGF) of 20 per cent of the cost of the project, which comes to Rs 240.34 crore. While December 23 is the closing date for bids, we are expecting 20 bidders, all the very best in the business of constructing roads. The project will be completed in 30 months from the date of its award,” the minister stated. This North-South corridor would provide smooth connectivity up to Ambala. While the four-laning of the Rohtak-Jind National Highway-71 was pending approval with the National Highway Authority of India, areas along the state highway 12 and 11-A from Jind to Kaithal had been widened, joining these to NH-65 between Kaithal and Ambala. The four-laning of NH-65 bewteen the two districts had been cleared by the NHAI at an estimated cost of Rs 350 crore and financial bids were likely to be opened by December-end. The minister said unlike the Delhi route where commuters had to pay at least five toll taxes, this corridor would have at the most two toll tax points. “Though the rates of toll tax will be calculated only after the bidding process, we have decided that the rates will be much less than those being charged on national highways,” he emphasised. Not expecting trouble in land acquisition for the project, Surjewala maintained: “We already have the right of way and we are only seeking more of that. Besides, this will bring development in villages and cities located along the corridor,” he maintained. |
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8 school kids hurt in mishap
Fatehabad, December 14 The incident occurred at 8 am when the bus driver rammed the vehicle into a trailer carrying paddy on a turn on the Fatehabad-Bhuna road. The bus was carrying students of Senior Model School, Bhirdana, all aged between 7 to 13. The driver, Subhash, sustained fracture injuries. Roshan, the conductor, was hurt too. Subhash, said sources, did not have a driver’s licence for a bus. Also, the vehicle was not registered with the transport authorities here.The overloaded bus was carying students almost double its seating capacity of 23. There was complete chaos after the accident with the children crying out in pain. Farmers working in their fields rushed to the aid of the injured children, pulling them out of the bus. Thereafter, SHO Shamsher Singh Dahiya reached the site and so did parents of the children from nearby Jhalnia and Mohamadpur Rohi villages. some of the injured were identified as Sunil, Sandeep, Sonia, Manpreet, Parveen, Sagar son of Raj Kumar, and Sagar, son of Roor Singh. Om Parkash Bishnoi, principal of the school, said Sagar was admitted to a local nursing home while Sunil was undergoing treatment at Hisar. Manpreet, a girl student, with serious injuries was undergoing treatment at the local General Hospital. He said the bus had been hired on contract and he had terminated the contract after the accident. |
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HC warning to cops on FIRs
Rathore case Former top cop SPS Rathore yesterday called for vacation of stay on the filing of charge sheet by the CBI in the Ruchika abetment to suicide case. His wife-cum-counsel Abha Rathore submitted that the CBI had informed the Supreme Court that it would be filing a closure report in this case. As such, the stay on filing the challan should be vacated. The Panchkula police had registered the case under Section 306 of the IPC against Rathore on January 6 this year. The CBI took over the case on January 11.
Chandigarh, December 14 The assertion came on a petition filed by assistant sub-inspector with the Haryana police Hori Lal. The ASI had moved the High Court against the orders stopping his increments. Taking up the petition, Justice Ranjit Singh observed that the petitioner was accused of not taking appropriate action in investigating a murder case and was punished with the stoppage of three increments in 2005. Subsequently, the punishment was withdrawn. But, the order stopping the increment was again restored by the state DGP in exercise of suo motu powers. In his detailed order, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted that the DGP’s action, to him, appeared to be justified, keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case. Upholding his action, Justice Ranjit Singh ruled that the DGP had relevant powers, which were exercised in the best interests of the organisation. Dismissing the petition after hearing the arguments by the petitioner and the state counsel and after going through the documents, Justice Ranjit Singh added that he was, as such, not inclined to interfere in the matter. Hori Lal was the in charge of the Jagadhri police post, where a complaint expressing suspicion regarding murder was pending at the time of his joining. The complainant, Santosh Rani, had expressed suspicion against Surender George in her husband, Salook Das’s death. A perusal of the judicial record reveals that on June 2, 2005, a charge sheet was served on Hori Lal. The ASI was, in fact, blamed for showing lack of interest in registering a case on Santosh Rani’s complaint. |
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Sugarcane farmers block traffic
Rohtak, December 14 Hundreds of farmers blocked the road near Deeghal vilage this morning in protest against the delay in lifting of the cane. This was the second such protest in the district in the past couple of days. The mill, which started its operations last year, had failed to crush all the cane supplied to it and a large quantity of it had to be diverted to other mills. Last year, the total crushing here was about 16,000 quintals against the target of four lakh quintals. This year the mill, which has a new Managing Director, has set a target to crush 30 lakh quintals of cane with the total sugar production estimated to be about 2.75 lakh quintals. The mill authorities have announced a shutdown on December 16 to remove the snags identified by engineers. “There are certain snags in the mill and these will be removed in due course, without any major inconvenience to farmers,” said Bir Singh, MD. He said the farmers had held a protest today mainly because of the problems they were facing in transporting cane from some purchase-cum- weighing centres. Thirty-two centres had been set up this year, he said, claiming that the mill would operate for the entire crushing period and it would be ensured that no farmer was forced to sell the cane elsewhere. Last year, several farmers in the district and the region had sold cane to some private sugar mills in Punjab at a rate higher than the MSP announced by the state government. The MSP this year is Rs 220 per quintal. |
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Fly menace in Barwala
Panchkula, December 14 Irked over the indifferent attitude of the state government, advocate Vijay Bansal, patron, Shivalik Vikas Manch (SVM), through his counsel Ravi Sharma, has served a legal notice on Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary, Department of Health, Haryana, and others to formulate a stringent law to deal with the menace posed by poultry farms to the people of the region. He alleged that owners of poultry farms had failed to adopt “proper and modern house sanitation management”. Bansal said the availability of cheap agricultural land in this area and terrorism in the neighbouring state of Punjab in the eighties led to the establishment of big poultry farms in this area. He alleged that the successive governments had also failed to generate irrigation facilities for the farmers, which compelled them to sell their land. The SVM patron alleged though the district administration had conducted surveys many times, nothing concrete had come out till date in spite of repeated assurances by the administration due to “political clout” enjoyed by the poultry owners. The people in the region were also facing hardships in finding matrimonial alliances for their children as people of other regions were now hesitatant to marry their daughters in this region because of the fly menace. He urged the government to enforce the provisions of the law as an interim measure within 15 days from the receipt of the legal notice. |
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Third instalment of arrears next month
Chandigarh, December 14 Finance Minister Ajay Singh Yadav, said the government had already paid 70 per cent of the arrears that were to be given to its employees on the basis of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission. He said the total liability on the government exchequer of providing arrears would be Rs 4,350 crore, of which 70 per cent amount had already been paid. The liability of providing the third instalment of arrears would be of about
Rs 1,305 crore. The Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda ,had already approved that the balance 30 per cent arrear be released in
January 2011. The second instalment of the arrears was paid in March 2010 and in some cases in October 2010. Yadav said the government was committed to the welfare of its employees and a number of decisions had been taken keeping in view the interests of the employees in mind, which included an increase in the house building loan, computer loan, car loan and enhancement in the dearness allowance. |
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Milking students
Rohtak, December 14 Students carrying cans of milk were seen going to school at 10.15 am at Garnawathi and Kakrana villages. Some of them claimed they had been instructed by teachers to bring milk products from home even as other students were attending classes in Hindi, mathematics and Englishat the government school in Garnawathi village. The school has a strength of 700 students. While the school at Garnawathi village is a senior secondary school, the one at Kakrana village is a primary school with a student strength of 300. Sources claimed that students bringing buttermilk to school was routine at Garnawathi and there had been no opposition from any quarter so far. A teacher claimed that the milk brought by the students was meant for the dishes to be served to the students under the mid-day meal scheme. But none in the school could provide a satisfactory answer as to why the students were asked to bring ingredients for a scheme run by the government. At the school in Kakrana, a woman teacher was found sipping milk in her class. When contacted, District Education Officer Krishna Dalal said any such activity was wrong but the buttermilk could have been requisitioned by mid-day meal workers. She said she had no knowledge if the teachers had been getting milk and buttermilk on a daily basis for private consumption. No such complaint had surfaced in this regard, she added. |
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Will not compromise, says Mirchpur widow
Hisar, December 14 At an all-caste panchayat yesterday, members of all castes were unanimous in their view that the dispute should be resolved soon to restore amity and peace. While most Dalits favoured a compromise between warring residents, Tara Chand’s widow and son rejected it. They now live in government accommodation at Hisar. It was decided that a deputation of Dalits would meet the widow Kamla and her son Pradeep at Hisar to convince them to resolve the imbroglio. The panchayat decided that if the two did not agree to it, another panchayat would be organised in the village on December 16 to finalise a strategy. Representatives of Dalits, including Suresh, Sajjan, Ramphal, Mukesh and Binder, who attended the panchayat meeting said they would try to convince other members of their community who were still angry with the Jats and were opposed to any compromise. If the situation demanded, they would stage a dharna in front of Kamla’s houser, they said. Members of both communities expressed dismay over the “indifference” shown by the government, accusing it of not taking any steps to help restore peace in the village. As many as 103 persons have been in jail for months for setting afire houses of Dalits in the village over a minor dispute. |
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Couple dies in mishap
Karnal, December 14 In another accident, six persons of a marriage party, including the groom, were injured when the Maruti Alto car they were travelling in was hit by a canter near Dadupur village. The marriage party was on its way from Gadi Sikenderpur village to Kurikshetra when the accident occurred. The injured - Aman (groom), his uncle Jai Bhagwan, brother-in-law Suresh and Vikas, Harish and Krishan - were admitted to the Civil Hospital where the condition of two of them is stated to be serious. The police has booked 12 persons under Sections 148, 149, 323, 324, 307 and 341 of the IPC for a murderous attack on Karan Deep in Sector 6, Karnal. He was allegedly attacked with sword and lathis and the accused also fired at him with an intention to kill. |
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Rathee is MDUTA president
Rohtak, December 14 Rathee polled 266 votes to trounce his opponents, Vazir Singh Nehra (76 votes) and Ranbir Singh Gulia (35 votes), for the post of president. Of the 381 votes cast, four were found invalid. Kataria polled 246 votes to defeat Satpal (Department of Law) by 117 votes. Satpal got 129 votes. Six votes for the post of secretary were found invalid. Rathee has become president for the second time in a row, while Kataria was elected secretary in his maiden contest. |
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UHBVN teams to check illegal load
Chandigarh, December 14 A spokesman for the nigam said the decision had been taken keeping in view the fact that results of checking of industrial load by the local staff during the past couple of months was not encouraging. Similarly, the use of electricity at “permanently disconnected premises” was also a cause for concern. The teams would comprise officers from the maintenance and protection wing. |
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Sirsa, December 14 The victim’s uncle, Sikander Singh, was also injured in the incident. The police had arrested Kashmir Singh, while the other two accused, Lakhbir Singh and Raj Pal, had managed to escape.
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Haryana has decided to provide the “missing link” between western and northern states by approving construction of a North-South corridor, the biggest road project in the state.
