Gurgaon, March 28
The local administration today swooped down on six farmhouses located in Rozka Gujjar village in Sohna tehsil of the district. The team found that amusement parks, camping sites and other commercial activities were being operated at the farmhouses located in the forest area.

The farmhouses were sealed, the borewells installed there demolished and electricity connections cut.

The National Green Tribunal had objected to commercial activities in Rozka Gujjar village, 75 per cent of which is located in the forest area and directed the local authorities to get these stopped.

Official sources said the sealed farmhouses included one belonging to popular Punjabi singer Mika Singh, besides Camp Caravan, Mercury Himalayan Adventures, Sans Eco-adventures, Water Banks and Dream Island.

Curiously, the local administration had taken possession of nearly 10 acres of land having a farmhouse belonging to another Punjabi singer Daler Mehndi located in Sohna and restored the land to the local municipal committee.

The team visited the village today to assess the extent of violations. Several constructions were found to be raised in the village area covered the Punjab Land Preservation Act, (PLPA) 1900 and thus are in violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and also the Aravalli notification of the Ministry of Environment and Forests dated 7/5/1992. Violations of the Controlled Area Act also appeared evident.

Further, in absence of consolidation, no construction could be taken up in the village. According to the Divisional Forest Officer, the Forest Department had dug trenches in this village to cut off the movement of tourist vehicles and notice boards carrying warnings of violation of Forest laws were also displayed. Despite this, small tourism units were found functional.

If such commercial activities were resumed, further action like registering of FIRs and other penal proceedings would be taken up against the violators.

Rohtak, March 28
Residents of Sundana village in the district kept the decades-old tradition by celebrating Holi at a common place yesterday.

Satywan, who has been organising the event every year, claims that not a single incident of enmity has taken place in the past several years during the celebrations. It is due to the observance of certain rules by the participants in the Holi celebrations that the tradition has been going on from the past several decades.

Ram Kumar, a resident, said while the womenfolk were authorised to use Korda (cloth baton) to hit the menfolk, the latter tried to defend themselves with a cane, a bucket or running away while throwing water on women during the event.

The woman, who ‘beat’ or hit the maximum number of men is applauded, while the man, who manages to escape the beating and throws maximum water on women, also gets an ovation.

Neelam, who has been a participant for the past several years, says the festival provides a chance to hog the limelight as a majority of residents enjoy the unique event. Sundana, 15 km from Rohtak, has a population of around 15,000.

Jhajjar, March 28
An incident of manhandling and restraining the Scheduled Castes (SC) families from performing the Holi puja allegedly by people of the upper castes has surfaced in Jahangirpur village of the district.

The police has started investigation into the matter but no case has been registered in this regard. Dalits threatened to desert the village if the accused were not arrested.

A significant number of people of the Dalit community today met Jhajjar Police Commissioner Anil Dhawan at the Mini Secretariat and demanded to register a criminal case against the accused, stating that the accused were roaming openly in the village.

They urged to depute police personnel at the village to avoid any untoward incident.

While interacting with mediapersons here, Brahma Nand, a member from the Dalit community, said they had been performing Holi puja separately just to avoid any untoward incident during the festival.

“Despite this, people of the upper castes not only misbehaved with women of our families by using derogatory remarks, but also restrained them from performing Holi puja on Tuesday. Women and children were also manhandled when they resisted the act,” said the victim.

Poonam, a resident, said they would leave the village if action was not taken against the accused. The police authorities should ensure safety and security of the Dalit families, she added.

Dhawan said the case was being probed deeply as people of the upper castes also suffered injuries in the clash. They also demanded a fair investigation into the matter.

“Statements of people from both the parties are being recorded to ascertain the fact. Anyone found guilty will not be spared,” said the Superintendent of Police, adding that a case would be registered after preliminary investigation. 

Chandigarh, March 28
Haryana is the leading state in implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act as a result of which the dropout rate in government schools at primary and upper-primary level is now merely one per cent and two per cent, respectively.

While claiming this here today, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the Haryana State Teachers Selection Board had been established for regular and timely recruitment of teachers.

As many as 8,403 JBT teachers and 1,910 masters had recently been posted in schools to maintain the student-teacher ratio and the recruitment of 9,870 JBT teachers was under process, he added.

Apart from this, rationalisation of the JBT teachers as per the norms of the Right to Education Act has also been done for improving the education quality as well as maintaining the student-teacher ratio.

Bhukkal said as a result of the efforts made by the state government, the gross enrolment ratio in the schools had improved. 

Rewari, March 28
Sona Devi and her grandson, Aditya (3), were killed while eight others, including three women, all members of the same family of Mukandpur Basai village, 18 km from Rewari, were injured when their tempo collided with a Tata vehicle near Buroli village, 15 km from here, late on Tuesday night.

Gurgaon, March 28
Eight persons, including two women and two children, were killed near Barkothi on the Gurgaon-Alwar Highway today when a truck hit a dumper today. Out of the 19 injured persons, four were critical.

The injured were rushed to a local hospital from where they were referred to hospitals in Delhi. The police and local administration reached the spot and made suitable arrangements for the injured.

According to the police, both the dumper and bus were coming from the Firozpur Jhirka side and it was the dumper that collided with the bus. The collision was so severe that none of the passengers could escape unhurt.

A case of negligent driving has been registered against the owner of the dumper while locals are up in arms against the administration for not keeping a check on illegal entry of dumpers.

"There is a fixed time for the entry of dumpers but they throng the roads throughout the day. Different organisations have met the administration seeking respite but to no avail," said a local sarpanch.

Gurgaon, March 28
Five migrant labourers from West Bengal were crushed to death in Mewat after a power transmission tower fell on them today.

The accident left 11 people injured in the accident. Three workers were crushed to death on the spot while two succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. The other injured have been admitted to a Government Hospital in Nuh.

The tower collapsed in Sikrawa village near Punhana, around 80 km from Gurgaon. Around 125 labourers were at work on two towers when one of them collapsed. The fallen tower was to transmit electricity from Gurgaon to Agra.

Those killed had been identified as Munilal (20), Muktarool (22), Isrile Momin (23), Rintu Shekh, (22) and Sabirool Shekh -- all from Malda district of West Bengal, said Devender Singh, Punhana police station chief.

The project manager and site engineers have been booked under Sections 304 and 34, IPC.

Hisar, March 28
An 18-member team of the mountaineering club of the Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, has returned after successfully scaling 4,200m Patalsu Peak situated at the Solang valley in Himachal Pradesh.

A spokesperson of the university said that the team, led by Dr Anil Panwar, included 15 boys and three girls. The team managed to scale the peak in eight days.

The team also participated in activities like river crossing, rappelling and monkey crawling, he said.

Sonepat, March 28
The Delhi branch of Bank of Baroda had sealed the Sonepat Institute of Engineering and Management, near Badwasni, following the non-payment of a loan amounting to over Rs 8.63 crore by the college management.

The bank had also pasted a notice and put a sealed lock on the main gate of the college building. The action had created panic among students, who had expressed their resentment against the management and said the action had put their future at stake.

Worried students, led by Kunal Gahlawat, state general secretary of the INSO, student wing of the INLD, today staged a protest outside the college and raised slogans against the management.

Students demanded immediate opening of the college. Gahlawat informed that students had already paid Rs 65,000 as the college fee, Rs 30,000 as the bus charges and Rs 4,500 as university's fee during the year and the examination were to commence next month.

He alleged that no one from the management and faculties were available to talk to the students. He also urged the university authorities and the district administration to intervene into the matter and take necessary action.

Chandigarh, March 28
The Haryana Government has made all arrangements for the smooth procurement of rabi crops which will start arriving in the mandis from April 1. This year about 86 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of wheat is likely to arrive in the mandis of the state.

While stating this today, Food and Supplies Minister Mahender Partap Singh said to ensure prompt payment to the farmers within 48 to 72 hours, the state government has made a financial arrangement of Rs 11,695 crore for wheat procurement.

He said as per estimates of the Agriculture Department wheat had been sown in an area of 25.05 lakh hectares and its production would be about 124 lakh MT, out of which about 86 lakh MT was expected to be procured on the minimum support price (MSP) by the procurement agencies.

He said the farmers had been advised to bring their foodgrains to the market after proper cleaning and as per norms fixed by the Government of India.

He said wheat would be procured by six procuring agencies. The Food and Supplies Department will procure 33 per cent, HAFED 30 per cent, the Food Corporation of India 12 per cent, the Haryana Warehousing Corporation and the Haryana Agro Industries Corporation 10 per cent each and CONFED would be procured five per cent at the MSP of Rs 1,350 per quintal as announced by the Government of India.

Similarly, the MSP for barley had been fixed at Rs 980 per quintal, for gram Rs 3,000 per quintal, masur Rs 2,900 per quintal, rapeseed /mustard Rs 3,000 per quintal and sunflower at Rs 2,800 per quintal, he added.

The minister said this year 372 mandis would be operative. The heads of the procuring agencies have been asked to ensure that all mandis were equipped with basic amenities, such as drinking water, electricity, pucca platform, sheds and parking place.