Sonepat, December 30
Bringing cheers to thousands of residents of the district, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced a slew of developmental projects worth over Rs 450 crore, besides laying the foundation stones of projects worth Rs 150 crore here today.

The Chief Minister, who was here to address the Sonepat Vikas Rally, laid the foundation stones of Rs 40-crore railway over-bridge at a level crossing near Sonepat railway station, Rs 69.58-crore project to increase drinking water supply up to 135 litres per head in the town, Rs 21.72-crore storm water drainage scheme to get rid of the water-logging problem in various areas of Sonepat town and two 33 KV power substations with estimated cost of Rs 2.60 crore each to meet the power requirements of HUDA’s Sectors 12, 13, 14 and 15.

While addressing the rally, the CM listed various educational projects, including setting up of a women university at Khanpur Kalan, Rajiv Gandhi Education City near Rai and Science and Technology University at Murthal, undertaken by his government during the past seven years and reiterated his commitment for speedy all-round development of Sonepat area, which was taking shape of becoming an international educational hub.

Hooda said the Central government had also set up a National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management at Kundli, along with sanctioning the Indian Institute of Information Technology which would be set up at Kilorad village, whose gram panchayat had donated the land for this institution.

Hooda said during the six-year rule of the INLD (between 1999 to 2005), only Rs 719 crore had been spent on various projects in the district, while in the past six years, the state government had spent over Rs 4,426 crore.

Claiming that Haryana was the first state in the country to reduce the interest rate on crop loans from 11 per cent to four per cent, he said a working group of four Chief Ministers, constituted by the Union Government and headed by him, had recommended this rate of interest for implementation by the nationalised banks. Another important recommendation made by the working group was to fix the minimum support price by taking into account the production cost and adding 50 per cent of this cost to ensure permanent income of the farmers, he added.

Referring to the demands forwarded by the Sonepat MP Jitender Singh Malik, the CM promised to launch projects worth Rs 450 crore, including construction of Rs 130-crore bypass around Sonepat, Rs 87-crore railway over-bridges at Rai-Nahra level crossing and near local cooperative sugar mill, widening of roads, Rs 60 crore for improvement of sewerage system, Rs 48 crore for strengthening of power infrastructure and more than a dozen other projects costing around Rs 100 crore.

Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, who was also present on the occasion, claimed that because of the pro-people and development-oriented policies of the state government, Haryana was one of the three states in the country which achieved 11 per cent growth during the 11th Five-Year plan. Other two states included Gujarat and Karnataka, he added.

Others who spoke on the occasion included CPS Jaiveer Singh, MLAs Jai Tirth, Jagbir Singh Malik and Sri Krishan Hooda, former ministers Krishna Gahlaut and Ved Singh Malik, Political Adviser to CM, Prof Virender, DCC (U) president, Pradeep Gautam, ex-MLAs Sonepat Anil Thakkar and Devraj Dewan.

Sirsa, December 30
The police today unearthed a flesh trade racket by arresting a call girl, a pimp and a customer from a house in Bata Colony here. Three more youths, who were also present in the house at the time of the raid managed to escape.

The pimp, Ramesh Bhatia, had brought the call girl Sabina (23) from West Bengal, the police said.

Sonu, a student, who lived in a rented accommodation in Bata Colony had “hired” the call girl from Bhatia for a night and had called his friends to his room.

As the youths started partying after the arrival of Bhatia with the girl, some neighbours informed the police, who immediately reached the spot.

While Bhatia, Sonu and Sabina were arrested from the house, the three other youths present in the house managed to give the police a slip.

SHO Suresh Pal said Sabina had informed the police that Bhatia brought her from Delhi and used to send her to customers for money.

The police said Bhatia had been running the flesh trade racket in the town for long and some months ago, he was arrested in another case too.

In a raid conduced on a house in the local Kirti Nagar, the police had arrested two call girls and two other persons on September 21.

During investigation, it was revealed that Ramesh Bhatia, who was later arrested after two days, had brought the girls, a Bengali and another from Delhi, for running the flesh trade.

Chandigarh, December 30
The tall claims of the Hooda Government about safety and security in the state seems to have gone for a toss with three murders, an equal number of dacoities and one dowry death being reported from the land of khaps and honour killings daily.

In fact, the fair sex was at the receiving end of the criminals and their relatives with 4,304 cases relating to dowry death, dowry harassment, rape and abduction being reported till November 2011 as compared to 4,279 in the corresponding period last year.

However, the dowry death cases registered a slight decline with 236 cases of dowry deaths being registered this year as compared to 277 cases registered during the corresponding period of previous year.

Till November, 979 cases of murder, 55 cases of culpable homicide and 779 cases of attempt to murder were reported from the state.The crime against property like robbery, dacoity and preparation for dacoity also came down with 891 such cases being reported as compared to 1,051 cases during the corresponding period last year.

Last year, the “Crime in India-2010” report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs has dubbed Haryana as the 12th most-criminal state in the country. Haryana reported 1,005 cases of murder, 284 dowry deaths, 836 cases of attempt to murder and 63 cases of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Police sources claimed due to sustained efforts and public coordination, there had been remarkable decline in road accidents this year. As many as 9,627 cases were registered this year as compared to 9,963 cases registered during the previous year.

Rohtak, December 30
There had been a rise in use of illegal weapons during the concluding year as the district police recovered 132 illicit firearms in comparison to around 97 such weapons last year. The police registered about 150 cases under the Arms Act against 146 of the previous year.

While a police spokesperson claimed that the rise in recovery of illicit weapons had been mainly due to increased police vigil and a constant drive to nab the holder of such weapons, but it had also been revealed the number of murders in the district this year, which have risen to 75 from 69 last year could be due to fact that the availability and supply of such arms could have gone up during the past few years.

The related recoveries made during the period include revolvers of both foreign and country-made brands, rifles, guns, knives and 88 cartridges from the accused arrested.

A total of 4,355 cases had been registered in the present year up to December 5, against the total of 4,232 cases in 2010. This shows an increase of about 123 cases this year.

The police, however, claims that while there had been a decrease in the number of criminal incidents related to chain snatching, gambling, illicit weapons and drug peddling, there had been no rise in the cases of murder and attempt to murder in the district during the past month.

Gurgaon, December 30
Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena’s move of getting general power of attorney (GPA) verified from the authorities concerned of other states before registering sale deeds in the district on their basis has started showing results.

The Gurgaon district administration today got an FIR lodged against four persons, Dinesh Kumar, Narender Kumar, Naresh and Rajpal, for trying to get a sale deed of a plot registered in Gurgaon tehsil on the basis of a fake GPA.

Dinesh Kumar of Saraswati Enclave in Sector 10 here had reportedly given a GPA to Narender of Sushant Lok-I, Gurgaon, for a plot located in Sun City in Sector 54 of Gurgaon.Narender went to the Gurgaon tehsil office to get a sale registered on the basis of that GPA. The GPA was shown to be registered at Doraha in Sihore district of Madhya Pradesh on November 14, 2011. As per the decision taken earlier by Meena, the GPA was sent for verification to the Registrar of Sihore before registering the sale-deed. The Registrar informed through a fax message that the said GPA was not registered there.

Following this, an FIR was lodged against Dinesh Kumar and Narender, as well as Naresh and Rajpal, who signed as witnesses on the GPA, on directions of the DC.

It was in order to check such cases of forged GPAs that Meena had directed the local revenue officials concerned to get the GPAs registered in other states verified before registering sale-deeds on their basis. Meena has also appealed to residents to get their GPAs verified in view of such cases of fraud coming to light. He has warned them that they could lose their hard-earned money by succumbing to such temptations.

Fatehabad, December 30
The year 2011 began with the farmers agitating against the acquisition of their land for the Gorakhpur Atomic Power Project sitting on the national highway outside the mini-secretariat with the body of their colleague, and the issue continued to put the authorities in a quagmire throughout the year.

Bhagu Ram, a farmer sitting on dharna outside the mini-secretariat had died of cold on the eve of the New Year last year, and the agitating farmers, who have been sitting on a dharna since August 2010, had blocked the NH by placing his body on the road demanding withdrawal of notification for the acquisition of their lands.

The farmers, however, cremated the body by the evening on the New Year day and lifted the road blockade after mediation by the authorities.

Two more farmers were taken ill in January adding to the predicament of the authorities.

However, much to the relief of the authorities, a splinter group of the farmers, whose land is sought to be acquired for the nuclear power plant, announced its support to the project and disassociated itself from the agitation on January 7.

Even as the authorities were finding it hard to tackle the agitation of Gorakhpur farmers, another group of agitators, this time residents of the local Ekta Colony, whose houses have been acquired by HUDA for a sector, also started their dharna from February.

In February, the farmers spurned an offer by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) to visit their plant at Narora in UP and announced that they would not allow the plant to be set up on their land at any cost.

In the beginning of March, the revenue authorities started taking undertakings from farmers willing to part with their land, and they claimed that a majority of the farmers were in favour of the acquisition.

However, the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in March this year proved a major setback for the authorities, as several NGOs and other bodies came in support of the farmers.

The agitating farmers began a relay fast from April 25 to exert more pressure on the authorities.

As the Gorakhpur farmers were busy holding a “mahapanchayat” against the project on July 25, the state government went a step further and issued a notification under Section 6 of the Land Acquisition Act. Yet another impasse was witnessed in September this year, when farmers refused to cremate a farmer’s body, who died during a dharna, and kept the withdrawal of notification as a precondition.

The standoff continued for four days and it ended only after a Team Anna member, Prashant Bhushan, came here on farmers’ invitation and persuaded them to cremate the body.

The agitating farmers observed their second “Black Diwali” in a row against the government’s decision to acquire their land.

While Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said during his Ratia visit that the work on the proposed plant would begin soon, both the INLD and the HJC have been opposing the government move. The HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi even raised the issue in Parliament on December 27.

The farmers’ agitation is more than 500 days old now and with no sign of a climb-down, their protest against the acquisition of land for the NPCIL project is likely to be carried forward to 2012. 

Rohtak, December 30
In compliance with the directions issued by the Drug Control department, the district administration has imposed Section 144 against the use of nicotine at the hookah bars in the district. Rohtak has been among those districts where raids had detected use of nicotine at such places and at least two of the samples had been found positive. A total of 85 samples had been taken in the raids carried out at about 44 places in various districts of the state in the past few months.

According to the district authorities, the decision to clamp down Section 144 has been taken to check the use of nicotine. The district drug officials have been directed to conduct surprise raids and check the use of nicotine in the hookah bars.

The officials have announced to penalise the offenders under Section 188 of the IPC in case of violation of the order. According to the Drug Control department, the report of laboratory test of as many as 16 samples had revealed the use of nicotine by these bars. Section 144 has already been invoked at Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panchkula, where majority of such spots had been found to be operating. The department has also announced to set up a Task Force at both the state and district-level which would be keeping an eye on such developments to prevent the misuse of nicotine. There is a provision of three to five years of jail if one gets convicted under the present legal framework.

Sonepat, December 30
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today suspended Executive Engineer of division number 2 Raj Kumar and SDO of Daronda More-Ahulana Ramesh Chander Goyal of the Public Health Department office for their laxity and dereliction in performing their official duties.

Hooda presided over a review meeting of the Sonepat district administration in which district-level officials and MPs Jitender Malik, Deepender Singh Hooda, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Jaiveer Balmiki, Political Advisor Prof Virender, MLAs Shri Krishan Hooda and Jangbir Singh Malik also participated. Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Aggarwal gave a presentation on the progress of the ongoing projects in the district.

Raj Kumar and Ramesh Chander were found to be lax in performing the official duties as they delayed the sending of estimates for the water-supply projects in Baruda Mor and Ahulana villages, which were part of the Chief Minister announcements. He asked the DC to submit the inspection report.