Gurgaon, July 30
The Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana, has cancelled the draw of lots for the allotment of flats meant for the economically weaker sections (EWS) in Ansal API Sushant Lok in Sector 28 here as the scheme was not properly publicised (advertised) by the developer and thus not many people knew about the scheme. The draw of lots was to be held on August 1.

The fact that the scheme was not properly publicised by developer Ansal API was brought to the notice of the Town and Country Planning Department by Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena, who had been asked by the department to depute his representative for the draw of lots.

But when he came to know that only 23 applications had been received for 25 EWS flats, Meena smelt something foul in the matter. The cost of an EWS flat having a minimum area of 200 square feet is just Rs 1.5 lakh and the rate of a 50 square-yard EWS plot is just Rs 500 per square yard.

People from Gurgaon as well other districts were also eligible to apply for these EWS flat in Sector 28 of Gurgaon, and, yet, the number of applications was so low.

Meena found that Ansal API had advertised the EWS flats and plots only in supplementary editions of a Hindi daily meant only for Ambala and Faridabad districts.

Bringing the lapse of the developer before the department, Meena sent a communiqué to the Director-General of Town and Country Planning Department, Haryana, requesting him to cancel the draw of lots for these EWS flats. The department then ordered the scrapping of the draw of lots.

Meena said the state government had made it mandatory for the developers to construct and provide flats to the economically weaker sections of society in the group housing colonies developed by them.

This condition is clearly mentioned in the licence issued to the developer and to make the scheme transparent, the developer is also required to advertise the same in one leading English national daily and in two newspapers of vernacular languages having circulation of more than 10,000 copies in the district where the scheme is floated.

The DC asserted that the developer would have to advertise the EWS flats once again in the newspapers having adequate circulation in Gurgaon district so that the needy and deserving can avail themselves of the benefit of the scheme.

Chandigarh, July 30
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked Haryana not to lag behind in establishing Jan Aushadhi stores in the medical colleges and hospitals across the state.

The high court has also asked the state, Rohtak-based University of Health Sciences and other respondents to consider the feasibility of having a Jan Aushadhi shop on the university campus.

The 24x7 people’s medical shops are covered under the Centre’s Jan Aushadhi scheme. Generic medicines are sold at half the price of branded medicines.

The directions by Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia came on a bunch of two petitions by Rajbir Singh Chikkara and SS Jain Sabha against the shops in the shopping complex of Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, University of Health Sciences, Rohtak.

Earlier allotted shops in the complex, the petitioners had contended that the policy of providing medicines at economical rates had been shelved by auctioning the shop at “very high rates”; and the university was only making attempts to garner “maximum revenue”.

Justice Ahluwalia asserted: “Auction is the most transparent manner. Therefore, giving shops on auction, to garner maximum revenue, is in the interest of the institution. However, this Court is of the view that at the same time the patients belonging to the lower strata of society and (who)are poor, are also entitled to purchase medicines at an affordable rate”.

Justice Ahluwalia asserted: “This Court in a public interest litigation had considered opening of a Jan Aushadhi shop at PGI, Chandigarh; therefore, without affording any relief to the petitioner, this Court is of the view that respondents should explore the possibility of opening a Jan Aushadhi shop on the premises of the respondent---University, in the shops to be vacated by the petitioners.”

Justice Ahluwalia concluded: “Various Jan Aushadhi stores have been opened at PGI, Chandigarh, and in various medical colleges and hospitals in the State of Punjab. This court expects that Government of Haryana will not lag behind.”

Karnal, July 30
While the controversial movie ‘Khap’ on honour killings was released in the rest of the country, it was not screened in the "khap land" of Haryana as, fearing retaliation from khap leaders, the theatre owners preferred to play safe and either did not screen the film or withdrew it immediately.

The film includes a sequence of the infamous Babli-Manoj honour killing case in which five persons were sentenced to life imprisonment but the people of Karnal could not watch the movie as the Fun theatre which screened the movie, withdrew it as there was no viewer in the first show.

The khap mahapanchayats of Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh had threatened to lodge protests against the screening of the film and the message was "loud and clear" for the theatre owners in Haryana. The film was withdrawn after one show in Faridabad and Sonepat. The theatre owners decided not to screen the film at Kurukshetra and some other places at the last moment.

The film, starring Om Puri, Mohnish Behl, Govind Namdev and Uvika Chaudhary, highlighted the role of khap mahapanchayats in honour killings in Haryana. It ran into trouble at several places where the theatre owners voluntarily decided not to show the film as they did not want to provke the khaps.

Many Jat leaders openly dubbed the film as "anti-khap" and full of distortions and said that it projected the khaps in a poor light and undermined the positive social role played by them. Noted social activist, Prof D R Chaudhry, a social activist who had been targeting the khaps on many occasions, maintained that the decision of the theatre owners not to screen the film was "unfortunate" and an attack on "right to expression".

While the theatres in Gurgaon, Faridabad and Sonepat did not screen the film, some of the theatre owners in South Delhi also succumbed to threats and followed suit.

Sirsa, July 30
Serial incidents of chain snatching have scared Sirsa residents, particularly women, who have started fearing going alone in the open. As many as nine incidents of chain snatching have been reported in Sirsa in July alone - five of these happening in the last three days.

The Bharatiya Janata Party today submitted a memorandum to the SP, Satinder Kumar Gupta, after miscreants targeted the daughter of senior BJP leader Ganeshi Lal, a former minister in Bansi Lal’s cabinet, on Friday.

Renu Sharma, state president of the BJP’s Mahila Morcha, who led her party activists to the SP, said that repeated incidents of chain snatching have made it difficult for women to venture out of their homes.

She alleged that the incidents have been happening at regular intervals and women going out of their houses for their jobs or otherwise are not sure whether they would come back home safe.The BJP demanded that the police should make some serious attempts in this direction, so that women could feel safer in Sirsa.

Padam Jain, district president of the INLD, alleged that his party had taken up the issue three times in the past month with the police, but no attempts were being made to catch the culprits.

Three back-to-back incidents of chain snatching were reported in the town yesterday afternoon.

The miscreants targeted Vibha, a daughter of the former BJP minister, outside her Court Colony residence around 1.30 pm, when she was purchasing vegetables from a vendor. Two youths came on a motorcycle and the one riding pillion snatched her gold chain from her neck in presence of the vendor and two other women.

After an hour, two youths on a motorcycle snatched a gold chain from a woman’s neck in Sector 20 of HUDA; and again at 3 pm, yet another woman was targeted in a similar fashion in Agarsen Colony.

Panchkula, July 30
In the infamous Gurgaon kidney racket, the CBI has failed to trace the correct addresses of six of the 11 victims who were key prosecution witnesses.

As the CBI failed to bring any more victims for recording of statement today, the special CBI court sent the main accused, Dr Amit Kumar, and two others in the custody of the Andhra Pradesh police.

The CBI had prepared a list of 11 victims for recording their statements. Five victims (witnesses) have already turned hostile, and now the CBI has failed to trace the correct addresses of the other six victims.

Special CBI judge A S Narang sent Dr Amit Kumar, his brother Jeevan and Dr Upender Aggarwal to Guntur jail in Andhra Pradesh, as one case of similar nature was also registered against them in Andhra Pradesh. The court directed the Andhra Pradesh police to bring the trio back on August 20.

Meanwhile, Amit Kumar filed a bail application before the special CBI court today. Amit’s counsel Amit Gupta said they have stated in the application that Amit Kumar was not in India during 2007-08 but was away to Canada. There was no entry in the passport to show that Amit Kumar had returned to India during that period, Gupta added.

Gupta said the court had asked the CBI to file its reply on the bail application by August 5.

The racket was busted on January 24, 2008, after a joint team of the Uttar Pradesh and Gurgaon police raided a house in Sector 22 of Gurgaon. Dr Amit Kumar, who was later nabbed from Nepal, and his accomplices were allegedly operating on the poor and transplanting their kidneys onto NRI clients.

The CBI, in its charge sheet filed on April 29, 2008, had stated that the accused lured people to a private hospital in Gurgaon and other places, where their kidneys were removed and sold at higher prices to patients, including those from abroad.

Cases were also registered against Amit Kumar and Jeevan in other states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.

Karnal, July 30
Haryana Cooperation Minister Satpal Sangwan today raided the godowns of HAFED at Traveri and seized records after glaring irregularities were found in the stocks of rice.

The minister was furious as seven employees, including the manager, were found absent and the raid was so sudden that the employees had no time to set the record straight.

The minister reportedly detected glaring irregularities like shortage of rice, under weight rice bags, storage of open market rice in godowns and said that stringent action would be taken against the erring employees, responsible for irregularities and lapses.

Later, talking to mediapersons, he said the HAFED losses stood at Rs 3.96 crore and efforts were being made to bring the federation out of the red. He said plans had been chalked out to make the sugar mills profitable, adding that more Vita booths would be opened to overcome the shortage of milk.

Referring to the sale of Saathi rice from UP in Haryana, he said he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister.

The cultivation of Saathi rice, which consumes more water was banned in Haryana but it was being grown in abundance in adjoining UP and the farmers were brining the produce to Haryana markets.

The farmers of low-lying areas along the Yamuna, prone to frequent floods during the monsoon, have repeatedly urged the government to allow cultivation of Saathi rice in these areas but the response of the government has not been encouraging.

Sirsa, July 30
Chaudhary Devi Lal University has appointed Prof SK Gahlawat as Dean of Colleges, in addition to his existing duties in the university.

Prof Gahlawat, who is chairperson of the Biotechnology Department, is at present functioning as Dean, Faculty of Life Sciences, and Dean, Faculty of Students Welfare, in the university.

The latest assignment was given to Prof Gahlawat in pursuance to the decision of the Executive Council of the university in view of the affiliation of 42 colleges of Sirsa and Fatehabad district with Chaudhary Devi Lal University.

Rewari, July 30
The Power, Forest and Environment Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, has lamented that of all the Chief Ministers who have ruled Haryana during the past over four decades, since the state’s inception in 1966, none had given a fair deal to the Ahirwal region or more so the Rewari region in the matter of development.

Addressing a meeting of his supporters at his residence here today, Captain Yadav deplored that while a number of universities had been successfully functioning in Rohtak, Hisar and Kurukshetra, it was Rewari alone that continued to stand deprived of its rightful claim in this regard. He asked ruefully if it did not indicate that “discriminatory” treatment was being meted out to Rewari in this respect.

Captain Yadav exhorted his supporters to participate in large numbers in tomorrow’s Samman Rally at Gurgaon.

Two Ahirwal chieftains, Rao Inderjit Singh, MP, and Captain Yadav, who have not been on speaking terms for a long time, will simultaneously share the same manch tomorrow, thus breaking their long spell of political differences.

Sonepat, July 30
All the DSPs, SHOs and in charge of police chowkis in the district were today asked to make the people aware about the provisions of the Mediation and Reconciliation Centre, set up by the Punjab and Haryana High Court; and to play the role of a mediator to settle the disputes. While presiding over a meeting of these police officers, the SSP, KK Rao, said the high court had set up such centres in 10 districts, including Sonepat, of the state and the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Vivek Bharti, had been nominated as the Nodal Officer of the district centre.

Under the provisions of the centre, he said, the police could play the role of a mediator between the two parties in the compoundable cases, falling under the category of Section 320, IPC, by creating an atmosphere of compromise.

Instead of imposing its own decision, the police would collect the relevant compromise papers from both the parties.