Fatehabad, December 12
Nearly 7,700 families of Fatehabad getting benefits reserved for people below poverty line (BPL) are set to lose these privileges as the district authorities have planned to launch a drive to cancel all bogus BPL cards.

Deputy Commissioner ML Kaushik who presided over a meeting of officials on the issue said today that nearly 7,700 families out of the 48,720 included in the BPL lists had been getting the benefits undeservedly.

A survey conducted by the authorities on the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has revealed these facts.

A large number of well-off people had managed to get their names included in the lists to get benefits meant for the poor while those who genuinely needed such benefits have been left out of the lists.

The families having pink cards are categorised as the poorest of the poor under the Antodaya Ann Yojna and they get foodgrains at Rs 2 per kg while other BPL families with yellow cards are provided it at Rs 5 per kg.

Besides these, BPL cardholders get several benefits under the social schemes of the Central and the Haryana Governments.

Kaushik said notices would be issued to the families found getting these benefits unjustifiably prior to taking any action and they would be given the opportunity of being heard. Later, the SDMs of the respective areas would visit their houses to confirm that the findings of the survey were correct and no deserving family was left out.

Sonepat, December 11
Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma, a veteran Congress leader and four-time MP , who died early today at Medanta City hospital in Gurgaon, was cremated here with full state honours around 2 pm. He was admitted to the hospital about 15 days back. He is survived by his wife Sharda Rani, three sons- Ashok Sharma, Kuldeep Sharma (Haryana Speaker) and Pradeep Sharma-- and three daughters-- Kusum, Usha and Raj. His body was brought here to enable people to pay their tributes to the departed soul and express condolences with the bereaved family.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi called up the deceased’s son Kuldeep Sharma, and said: “Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma was a great soul who never compromised with his principals in his life. You should carry forward the unfinished task of your father. His loss is not only a personal loss to you, but also to the entire party .” The cremation was attended by Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, AICC general secretary Birender Singh, Union Minister Kumari Seija, Haryana PWD Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal, INLD secretary-general, Ajay Singh Chautala, MPs Jitender Singh Malik, Arvind Sharma and Naveen Jindal, HJC supremo Kuldeep Bisnoi, among others.

Born in Ahulana village in this district on September 13, 1923, Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma started practising at Sonepat after graduating in law . He was elected as an independent MLA in united Punjab in 1962 from Gannaur . He was again elected as MLA from Sonepat in 1972 and served as the Revenue, PWD and Education Minister in the state Cabinet. In the 1980 Lok Sabha mid-term poll, he was elected as an MP from Karnal and retained this seat in the 1984, 1989 and 1991 parliamentary elections. He served in several standing committees of Parliament.

Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma remained the undisputed leader of the state’s Brahmin community for over two decades. After Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, who was the first Chief Minister of Haryana, Pandit Chiranji Lal Sharma led the Brahmin community from the front. Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia and CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda expressed grief overChiranji Lal Sharma’s demise. The Governor described Sharma as a great social worker, an able parliamentarian and a man of the masses while Hooda described him as a disciplined soldier of the Congress who always followed its ideology. Phool Chand Mullana, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal, among others, conveyed sympathies to the bereaved family. 

Chandigarh, December 12
In Chiranji Lal Sharma’s death, Haryana has lost one of its tallest Brahmin leaders. While some rate him just behind the first Chief Minister of the state, Bhagwat Dayal Sharma, in popularity among the Brahmins, there are many who put Chiranji Lal ahead of Bhagwat Dayal because the former had a much longer political innings than the latter.

Chiranji Lal, a leading criminal lawyer of joint Rohtak district and surrounding areas, was elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1962 as an Independent. That way he was senior to Bhagwat Dayal as a legislator, who became an MLA for the first time in 1967. However, Bhagwat Dayal became more famous when he was made the Chief Minister of Haryana after the state’s inception in 1966.

A known orator, Chiranji Lal never looked elsewhere after he joined the Congress in 1967. On the other hand, Bhagwat Dayal often flittered from one political set-up to another. In 1972, Pandit Chiranji Lal became a member of the Haryana Assembly and joined the Bansi Lal Cabinet and held various portfolios like Revenue, Public Works (Building and Roads), Technical Education and Education.

The rise of Bhajan Lal as Chief Minister in the late seventies never allowed “Panditji” to take his rightful place in state politics, though he was a prominent non-Jat face in the Congress. A man of principles, he could not match Machiavellian Bhajan Lal in the rough and tough politics of the Jat land.

An occasion did come his way when he could have been a creditable alternative to Bhajan Lal in the state Congress. In the mid-nineties, Birender Singh and Bhupinder Singh were very active against Bhajan Lal. They had organised a rally in Rohtak, where they wanted to bring all prominent critics of Bhajan Lal at one platform. Panditji was most prominent among them. However, at the last moment he was prevented from going to Rohtak by his son Kuldeep (who is now Speaker of Haryana), who at that time was close to Bhajan Lal.

Had Panditji addressed the rally organised by the dissidents, he could have captured the imagination of even the Jats and might have emerged as a taller anti-Bhajan Lal leader than even Hooda and Birender Singh. Later Kuldeep regretted his stand.

— Yoginder Gupta

Kaithal, December 12
Women sarpanches, panches and members of the block samiti and the zila parishad who had come to attend a one-day workshop-cum-training programme on the MNREGA organised by the district administration here today were in for a shock when they found that no official was present to impart training to them.

Officials from the Haryana Institute of Rural Development, Nilokheri, were to conduct this programme. After waiting for a long time, the participants left the venue and blocked NH 65. They also raised slogans against the administration in protest against the treatment meted out to them.

Owing to the blockade, a large number of vehicles remained stranded causing inconvenience to commuters. Later, a police team reached the spot and persuaded the protesters to lift the blockade following which normal traffic was restored.

Deputy Commissioner A. Mona Sreeniwas said all this had happened due to some communication gap as earlier December 14 was fixed for the programme.

According to reports, a team of officials from the HIRD arrived late in the afternoon but the programme could not be held according to the schedule 

Sonepat, December 12
Yash Pal Malik, president of the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, has clarified that the demand of reservation for Jats is not confined to a particular state but the country as a whole.

Addressing a state-level meeting of office-bearers and other activists of the samiti here at Chhotu Ram dharamshala, Malik said their agitation would continue until reservation was given at the state as well as the central level. As a result of the Jat reservation agitation, he said the Congress-led UPA government had started coordinating with Jats in view of the assembly elections in UP and other states.

He cautioned the community leaders that Jat youths must get quality technical education to avail the benefits of reservation. 

Chandigarh, December 12
Seven ITIs in Haryana will be upgraded as Director-General, Employment and Training, Government of India, has released a Rs 17.50 crore as an interest-free loan for their upgradation under the vocational training improvement project during 2011.

Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the state government had also signed a memorandum of understanding with M/s Aravali Power Company Pvt. Ltd., Noida, for bearing the capital expenditure of Rs 10 crore for establishment of Government ITI, Salhawas, in Jhajjar district .

Machinery and equipment worth Rs 10.82 crore had also been purchased for providing quality training to students during the year, she added.

She said the department had also taken steps to ensure that the ITI students could get loans under self employment schemes. As many as 4,511 of 9052 ITI students had been benefited by way of placement in the government or semi-government sector or by going for self-employment ventures.

The minister said during 2011, four new government ITIs-- Kosli in Rewari, Kalayat in Kaithal, Santour in Bhiwani and Majri Payau in Hisar-- had been started and sanctioned seats had been increased by 2,768. The construction of five new government ITIs at Behal, Rawaldhi, Tosham, Dumerkhan and Kosli had also been completed. 

Panipat, December 10
Not letting the government has its way in introducing the private franchisee for the distribution systems in Panipat and Gurgaon, the All-India Power Engineers Federation has again opposed the proposed move.

In a letter to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the association has sought his immediate intervention in stalling the move which the engineers believe would be detrimental to the financial state of the power utilities.

Shaliender Dubey, secretary general of the federation, said bringing in private players to manage the distribution systems in Panipat and Gurgaon would trim down the revenue collection of the power utilities, which were already facing financial crunch.

Spokesperson for the federation VK Gupta said Gurgaon’s monthly contributions were Rs 214 crore, which was almost half of the total monthly income of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) that is around Rs 450 crore.

Panipat contributes Rs 35 crore per month to a total revenue of Rs 315 crore received by the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN).

He said the revenue data had made it clear that handing over these two circles to private companies would have serious implications.

Gupta said the rationale behind introducing the franchisee system in the two circles was beyond comprehension as revenue collection here was 100 per cent and the line losses were minimal.

Dubey alleged that the move aimed at privatising the power utilities for vested interests.

Kadarpur (Gurgaon), December 12
The 12th all-India police band competition commenced at the CRPF Group Centre here today. CRPF Director-General K.Vijay Kumar inaugurated the event.

As many as 24 teams comprising 1,263 participants from six central paramilitary forces, 17 state police bands and the RPF are participating in the competition. The five-day competition will have events of brass band, pipe band and bugler teams.

The bands will display their skills at DLF Promenade, Vasant Kunj; DLF Select City Walk, Saket; and India Gate lawns on December 13, 14 and 15, respectively, between 6 pm and 8 p.m. 

Gurgaon, December 12
A pleasure trip to the USA turned into a tragedy for a honeymooning couple from Gurgaon as the helicopter carrying them crashed in Las Vegas city last week.

Lovish Bhanot (28) and his wife Anupama (26) had tied the nuptial knot on November 6 and left for their honeymoon in the last week of November.

They went to the USA and were supposed to return by December 15. However, their families were shell-shocked after they heard the tragic news and a pall of gloom descended on their home. Lovish was heading a property brokerage firm, Lyca Investment Limited, after the death of his father three years ago.

He was the only son of his parents and is survived by two married sisters and mother. He was a resident of Sector 50 here. Though the crash took place last week, the news was broken to Lovish’s mother today as the death had not been confirmed by the authorities concerned earlier. 

Jhajjar, December 12
Shri Bhagwan (40), who had gone missing a few days ago, was found hanging with a ceiling fan at his ancestral house in Kheri-Khummar village today. The police has sent the body to the civil hospital for a postmortem examination.

The incident came to light when the deceased’s brother, Dayanand, reached the house after attending a marriage in the village. When Dayanand peeped into a room, he found Shri Bhagwan hanging from a ceiling fan.

Dayanand said in his complaint lodged with the police that Shri Bhagwan had gone missing from his rented house in Delhi under mysterious circumstances a few days ago.

The police said prima facie it appeared to be suicide though the exact cause of the death would be ascertained after the postmortem examination.

Kaithal , December 12
The police has arrested two relatives of a bridegroom in whose marriage at Pundri last month a youth was killed in firing while another was injured. The police has also recovered a gun and shells from the accused. Both were produced in a local court, which sent them in 14-day judicial custody.

Simardeep Singh, SP, said here today that Nishan Singh of Gillor village had lodged a complaint with the police that after Malik Singh’s marriage on the fateful day, some persons fired shots from a gun. A shot hit Jagdeep Singh of Gillour ,who succumbed to his injuries on the way to hospital . Some pellets hit Ranjit Singh of Habri village, near Pundri, and he was hospitalised .

The police arrested Lakhvinder of Kurukshetra and Punjab Singh of Meerpura . While Lakhvinder was the owner of the gun, Punjab Singh fired shots. 

Rewari, December 12
A cyclist and car owner Jitender’s five-year-old son Bishoo were killed while Jitender and his three-year-old daughter were injured in an accident involving a trailer, the car and the bicycle, at Banipur Chowk , near here, on the Delhi- Jaipur Highway yesterday.

When the driver of the trailer applied brakes abruptly, the car , on its way from Jaipur to Delhi, hit the cyclist and then rammed into the trailer.

While the cyclist, Bhimsa of Bihar, who was employed in a private company at Bawal , died on the spot, Bishoo succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital in Gurgaon.

Hodal (Palwal), December 12
In the wake of reports of artificial scarcity of urea in Palwal district and its sale on the black market, the authorities have tightened a noose around the authorised dealers of the fertiliser.

SDM, Hodal, Satpal Singh said today that an authorised dealer was today caught red-handed while selling urea to a farmer on the black market.

The farmer had given information to an official regarding higher price being allegedly demanded by the dealer for urea, which led to the raid. “The accused has been handed over to the police,” he added.

A team from the Agriculture Department had raided godowns and establishments dealing in wholesale and retail sale of urea.

The team comprised the SDM, Hodal, and police officials. Satbir Sharma, Deputy Director (Agriculture), Palwal, said while police action had been recommended against one retailer, licences of nearly six others had been cancelled. He said the dealer who had been handed over to the police was allegedly involved in the sale of urea on the black marker.

Meanwhile, retailers today made a joint representation to the SDM alleging that wholesale dealers had been charging more from them. The SDM said the allegations of the retailers would be investigated.