Chandigarh, March 14
The Haryana Government bought tebucanazol from a multi-national company at 34-38 per cent more cost than the prevailing market rates at the time the deal was inked to buy the fungicide for the treatment of loose smut, flag smut and Karnal bunt diseases in wheat seeds.

Documents available with The Tribune reveal that while Haryana was buying the fungicide for Rs 1,343 per kg since October 2010, the same fungicide was being supplied to the Uttarakhand Government at Rs 970 per kg (inclusive of all taxes) and to National Seeds Corporation at Rs 1,000 per kg. While the Uttarakhand government had purchased 900 kg of the fungicide for Rs 8.73 lakh, the Haryana Government had bought it for a much higher price of Rs 1,343 per kg. Haryana government had reportedly bought 4,50,000 kg of the fungicide.

A year later, in 2011, the National Seeds Corporation, too, bought the fungicide (from private dealers) at Rs 1,000 per kg.

The sale receipts, available with The Tribune show that the fungicide was available for much less amount in the open market than the rate at which the company supplied it directly to the Haryana government. This aspect was also highlighted by the managing director of the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC), Ashok Khemka, with the multi national company, supplying the fungicide. The company general manager, in his reply to the HSDC, a copy of which is available with The Tribune, had personally certified that the rate offered to HSDC, other government organisations and seed producers in Haryan, as decided in the state’s high powered purchase committee, are the best rates of the fungicide than any other dealer in Haryana.

Over the past three years, Haryana Government has spent Rs 60 crore to purchase tebucanazol from the multi-national company for curing, among other diseases, Karnal bunt, in wheat crop. However, this particular fungicide is not even registered to cure the disease, with the Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC). The issue was highlighted in the news columns of The Tribune, in its issue dated March 14.

The Tribune had highlighted how the Haryana Government had mandated the compulsory use of tebucanazol for treatment of wheat seeds, as a pre-condition to their certification since 2010-11. The cost of Raxil is reimbursed out of public funds to certified wheat seeds produced and sold in Haryana and the state has reimbursed almost Rs 60 crore out of public money in the last three years. This recommendation, making use of the fungicide mandatory, was made by the CCS Haryana Agricultural University.

Rohtak, March 14
Around 100 activists and supporters of the state unit of the CPM were rounded up by the police just before the inauguration of the first Agro Mall built by the Haryana Agricultural Marketing Board in the city this evening. They were protesting against the mall culture and FDI in the retail sector. The mall complex, located on the Delhi road near Sector 14 was later inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

The secretary of the Haryana CPM, Inderjit Singh, claimed that the police had rounded up over 100 activists who had assembled near the main gate to protest against FDI in retail and the culture of setting up malls. He said the protest was peaceful but the local authorities, perhaps, did not want it to come to the notice of the local residents and the Chief Minister.

He claimed that FDI was destined to destroy the small and marginal shopkeepers. He added that there were reports that some shops in this mall had been leased out to an international shopping chain.

Built at a cost of about Rs 50 crore, it is claimed that the mall would give the farmers access to agricultural implements, seeds and fertilisers besides having a spot to showcase or make available the products.

Manoj Kumar, a local resident, said the location of the Agro Mall was controversial as it was located at a congested residential area and the movement of trucks and tractors could pose a risk to the residents of Sector 14 and the students of MD University nearby.

Expressing similar views, Shekhar, a student said the Agro Mall should have been constructed in the outskirts of the town as it could result in traffic jams near the university.

The CM also inaugurated the ITI building in Sector 5 here built at a cost of around Rs 52 crore.

Chandigarh, March 14
Three years after the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model first “charmed” the Haryana government, it’s a love story that seems to have gone sour. “Enamoured” by the idea of roping in private funds to further development in the state initially, the model has virtually been rejected - first by departments and now by Congressmen themselves.

During the recent session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s confidant Venod Sharma was the first to express his “disillusionment”, indicating that the initial euphoria around “love” had died down.

Not once, but twice, during the proceedings, Sharma, insisted that the bus stand to be constructed in Ambala City be done with government funds instead of being made under the PPP mode.

Questioning the model, he emphasised that he was not at all “interested” in the PPP model which had become synonymous with delay. On his insistence, the government agreed to fund the construction of the bus stand for which acquisition proceedings are nearly complete.

Karnal MLA Sumita Singh, too, expressed disappoaintment with the PPP model which had delayed the construction of a bus stand in her district. Though she was told that the delay was essentially on account of site selection, given the broadening of the national highway, she, too, said that she did not want a state-of-art bus stand as promised under the PPP mode. Instead, she was willing to settle for a regular bus stand, shorn of frills, as long as it didn’t get delayed further.

Similarly, nothing came of the Transport Department’s “wooing” of the PPP model, adopted to give a facelift to its flying clubs of Karnal, Pinjore, Hisar and Narnaul. In the school education sector, too, after repeated meetings on “adopting” the PPP mode, the project fell out.

The Tourism Department, however, still seems “fascinated” by the PPP model and is toying with the idea of setting up two amusement parks and extending it to tourist complexes in the state.

“It was aimed at supplementing government funding of projects and, as an idea, it seemed workable, especially at a time when our focus is on infrastructure building. In my constituency, a medical college is coming up in the PPP mode,” explains Power Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, who advocated the PPP model for the first time in 2009 as Finance Minister.

However, the Opposition, insists that the model holds no water and was advocated by the government to rope in private parties with the idea of making quick money. “The government initially thought that this would build a government-corporate nexus and become a source of income for it. However, that did not materialise. When nobody came forward, the government, through its own MLAs, has initiated a rollback exercise by getting it raised in the House,” explains Indian national Lok Dal’s Abhay Chautala, insisting that this is the government’s attempt at “kite-flying” to paint a rosy picture while filling its own pockets.

It remains to be seen if the projects under PPP mode in tourism and a few other sectors will see the light of day or fizzle out and get a quiet burial like the rest.

Sonepat, March 14
Activists of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti today started indefinite dharnas at Kakroi, Gumar, Rajlu Garhi, Kathura, Kundli, Kundal and Jatwara villages in the district in the support of their demand for reservation of the OBC to the Jats in Central government services.

Talking to mediapersons at Kakroi dharna, state vice-president of the samiti Mool Chand Dahiya said the Jats who were considered socially and educationally backward caste by the Mandal Commission were not given the benefit of the OBC by the then government of VP Singh in the Centre.

He announced that today, it had been started at seven villages in the district and tomorrow, it would start at 20 more places. “If our demands are not accepted, the agitation will be intensified,” he added.

Hisar: Activists of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) on Thursday began their dharna at Dhani Gopal in Fatehabad even as their agitation at Mayyar in Hisar entered ninth day on Thursday .

The Jat activists began their dharna on sides of the Fatehabad-Chandigarh road near Dhani Gopal. Jats from neighbouring villages kept visiting the dharna site throughout the day.

Ram Bhagat Malik, a spokesperson of the AIJASS, said their agitation would remain peaceful and they had no plan to disrupt rail or road traffic.

Meanwhile, the condition of the six protesters sitting on the fast at Mayyar since March 7 is deteriorating. The authorities have stationed an ambulance at the dharna site, so that the agitators could be provided medical aid or shifted to a hospital in case of an emergency.

Chandigarh, March 14
Haryana politics is abuzz with the impending changes in the Congress leadership, especially, after the party high command stepped in to patch up differences between Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Ambala MP and Union Minister Kumari Selja. A part of the formula being worked out is that the high command will appoint a party president that is acceptable to both Hooda and Selja.

In this context, much significance is being attached to the meeting of Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma with All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president Sonia Gandhi in Delhi yesterday. So far, the name of Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar was doing the rounds as the replacement of acting Congress president Phool Chand Mullana.

Selja in her meeting with Sonia is believed to have discussed the issue pertaining to the appointment of the Congress president, besides taking up the issue of "lopsided" distribution of development funds. She is believed to have recommended that the party president should be a Dalit, however, she was open to any other name of a non-Dalit, who is neutral to both the Hooda and Selja camps.

Though the meeting between Kuldeep Sharma and Sonia is being termed as a routine, highly placed sources indicate that Sharma may have been summoned by the party president to get his assessment on the Haryana Congress. It is being said the party high command was also looking at the possibility of appointing him as the party president as he was acceptable to both warring factions. Therefore, the party president wanted to get his take on the issue.

Some political leaders suggest that not much should be read into the meeting between Kuldeep and Sonia as she and her son, Rahul Gandhi, are meeting all leaders of the Haryana Congress to assess the situation and make up their mind before passing on the chain of command to anyone.

Both Hooda and Selja are comfortable in their relationship with Kuldeep Sharma, but the party high command is yet to decide that it would like to replace a Dalit party president with a brahmin.

In Haryana, the Dalits are the next largest segment of population after the Jats. One common feeling is that since the Chief Minister is a Jat, the party president should continue to be a Dalit. Therefore, the name of Ashok Tanwar has been doing the rounds.

Kuldeep Sharma is not new to the party’s organisational structure as he has remained the acting president of the party from July 2007 to 2009. In 2009, he got elected as the party MLA from Gannaur (Sonepat). Tanwar, too, had been former NSUI and Indian Youth Congress president and knows the party structure well. The meeting of the Speaker with the party president a day after Sonia met Hooda and Selja assumes significance.

With the party high command replacing the party president in neighbouring Punjab, the change in the state presidentship that had been long overdue is also expected shortly. Haryana will go to poll in 2014 and so the high command wants to set its house in order.

Chandigarh, March 14
Notorious for rampant corruption and inefficiency, the cooperative sector is set to change in Haryana with the Hooda government amending the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, to strengthen it and infuse transparency in the sector.

A Bill to amend certain provisions of the existing Act was passed during the just-concluded Budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. “The amendments are major initiatives to strengthen and reinvigorate the cooperative sector in the state,” Cooperation Minister Satpal Sangwan said.

The minister asserted that the amendments in the Act had been effected to bring it in consonance with the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011. The new Act was expected not only to ensure autonomous and democratic functioning of cooperatives, but also the accountability of the management to the members and other stakeholders.

Under the amended Act, the hold of the government functionaries, such as the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS), on the cooperatives would be loosened to a great extent. “Now, the state government would constitute an election authority for the preparation of electoral rolls and conduct the election of the cooperative society instead of the RCS,” sources said.

The office-bearers of the society would hold office for a fixed term of five years from the date of election. If the committee is superceded before the five year term, the elections would be held within a maximum time limit of six months.

In fact, the committee of any cooperative society shall not be superceded or kept under suspension where there is no government shareholding and financial assistance by the government.

Besides, an independent professional audit of every society, two seats for women on the board of every cooperative society had been reserved to empower women.

The right of information to the members of the co-operative societies and stringent penalties in respect of offences are other salient features of the new Act.

Chandigarh, March 14
The Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) and the Haryana government have locked horns over the issue of alleged excess payment for free travel to 26 MLAs, including 12 ministers and chief parliamentary secretaries (CPS). While the legislators claim that they have received the travel reimbursement as per rules, the CAG report suggests that the rules were bent to benefit the legislators.

The CAG report says that the legislators were entitled to claim up to Rs 2 lakh towards free travel only once in one financial year 2009-10. But the legislators claimed the travel bill two times on the plea that the Haryana Vidhan Assembly had been reconstituted in 2009-10 and they were entitled to claim Rs 2 lakh each for the 11th and the 12th Vidhan Sabhas.

Both the CAG and the state government are interpreting the Haryana Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Act, 1975, and the Haryana Legislative Assembly Members (Free Transit) Rules, 1976, in different ways to fortify their respective points of view.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala has said the budgets esitmates for Haryana dated March 4, 2009, as agreed upon by the department of finance were conveyed to the secretary, Haryana Vidhan Sabha. Pursuant to the reconstitution of the assembly, a request for a revision of these estimates, including those for travel expenses, was sent to the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat on January 14, 2010. As per this, the legislators could claim separate travel expenses in the same year for the two Vidhan Sabhas, thus entitling the MLA to claim up to Rs 2 lakh two times.

But the CAG disagrees with this and says that the 26 legislators were paid Rs 2 lakh per annum for free travel facility between April and June 2009, they were again paid for the facility in the same financial year (2009-10) between November 2009 and February 2010, which amounted to an irregularity.

Fatehabad, March 14
A heavy hailstorm hit Fatehabad and its surrounding villages this evening causing extensive damage to crops. It rained hails in Fatehabad town around 5.30 pm and within minutes, all roads in the town were covered by sleet.

Deputy Commissioner Dr Saket Kumar said the initial reports indicated that more than 24 villages falling in Fatehabad and Ratia subdivisions had witnessed hailstorm.

Karnal/Kurukshetra: The scattered rains in parts of Haryana are keeping farmers on tenterhooks, but fortunately no damage has been caused by moderate rains in some areas.

Hisar and Ambala received 27.4 mm and 14.4 mm of rains, respectively, while Karnal had less than 10 mm of rains and no major damage has been reported to wheat crop.

Health Department officials seal a medical store as they raided medical shops in Karnal on Thursday. Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar

Illegal drugs seized from chemists
Tribune News Service

Fatehabad, March 14
The associations of the staff nurses and the multi-purpose health workers in Fatehabad have issued three-day ultimatum to the police to withdraw a criminal case registered against three nurses of Ratia or else they would launch an agitation.

Work remained suspended today at the Community Health Centre (CHC) in Ratia, as the entire staff members abstained from duty in protest against registration of a police case against the three nurses.

Yesterday, the police had booked three nurses of the CHC for causing death by negligence after a woman and her newly born baby died immediately after delivery on Tuesday night. Dr VK Jain, Senior Medical Officer of the CHC, said the functioning of the hospital remained paralysed today due to protests by the staff members.

Nurses and other staff members of the CHC met Civil Surgeon Dr Suraj Bhan Kamboj and lodged their protest against police action. The staff members maintained that the three nurses had been wrongly implicated.

A meeting of the Nurses Association and the multi-purpose health workers was held at Ratia today, where the agitated members of the two associations decried police action.

Paso Bai, a pregnant woman from Mirana village of Fatehabad, was brought to the CHC at Ratia when she was experiencing labour pains on Tuesday evening. The Victim's kin alleged she cried during labour pains for over three hours, but no one attended to her. Later, three nurses assisted her delivery, as no doctor was allegedly present in the hospital at that time. The woman started bleeding profusely after the delivery.

Chandigarh, March 14
The Haryana Sanskrit Academy today announced the names of litterateurs who would be honoured for their contribution to promoting the Sanskrit language and literature for the year 2012.

A press note issued here said that under the Sahityik Samman, Ram Dutt Sharma of Bhiwani would be awarded the Haryana Sanskrit Gaurav Samman Award with a cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakh. Mathura Dutt Pandey of Panchkula would be awarded the Mahrishi Vedvyas Samman Award carring Rs 1 lakh, Shipra Banerjee of Ambala the Mahrishi Valmiki Samman Award carrying Rs 1 lakh and Satyapal Sharma of Nissing (Karnal) the Mahakavi Banbhatt Samman Award carrying Rs 51,000.

Under the Acharya Samman, Acharya Pardeep Kumar Shastri would be honoured with the Guruvirjanand Acharya Samman, Rajkishore Shastri with Vidhyamartand Pandit Sitaram Shastri Acharya Samman, Acharya Harisingh Bhushan with the Pandit Yudhistir Mimansak Acharya Samman, Swami Pranavanand with the Swami Dharamdev Sanskrit Samradhak Samman and Sri Madan Gopal Shastri with Vayovridh Sanskrit Sevi Samman. Each award carries Rs 51,000.

Under the prizes for books, in case of prose, Mithilesh Sharma of Hisar would be honoured for his book ‘Swatantreya Senani Gaatha’. In case of poetry, Anju Sharma of Karnal would be honoured for her book 'Paryavaranam'. In the play category, Satyapal Sharma of Karnal would be honoured for his book ‘Putri-Putratishayini’ and in translation, Hariparkash Sharma of Yamunanagar would be honoured for his book ‘Bodhgyanmimansa’. Each of them would get Rs 21,000.