Chandigarh, March 29
After the recent tax-free Budget, there is a jolt for residents of the state. In a clear case of backdoor taxation, the Haryana Government today decided to increase taxes on motor vehicles and ‘bidis’- a development which may spark off resentment among the residents ahead of the Parliamentary and assembly elections next year.

Cars Up to Rs 6 lakh 3% Rs 6 to 10 lakh 6% Above Rs 20 lakh 9% Two wheelers Up to Rs 20,000 2% Rs 20,000 — 60,000 4% Rs 60,000 — 2 lakh 6% Over Rs 2 lakh 8%

The decision to increase the road tax on vehicles, including two-wheelers, used for personal purposes and ‘bidi’ was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here.

While the decision of the Transport Department to revise the existing rates of the road tax is seen as an offshoot of the decision of the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to bring uniformity in the taxation structure across the country, the decision to levy Value Added Tax (VAT) at the rate of 5 per cent, besides 5 per cent surcharge on the sale of ‘bidis’ has been taken to discourage the sale of ‘bidis’ which have harmful affect on smokers.

According to the decision, for two-wheelers costing up to Rs 20,000, the rate of the road tax would remain unchanged — 2 per cent. Those having two-wheelers costing between Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 would have to shell out a tax of 4 per cent. Similarly, it would be 6 per cent on the vehicles costing between Rs 60,000 to Rs 2 lakh and 8 per cent on the vehicles costing over Rs 2 lakh.

For cars, the owners would have to pay a tax at the rate of 3 per cent for vehicles costing up to Rs 6 lakh. The rate of 6 per cent would be applicable for cars costing between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 10 lakh. For cars costing above Rs 20 lakh, the rate of the tax would be 9 per cent. The tax would be levied on ex-showroom price of the vehicle, including VAT.

Earlier, for two-wheelers costing up to Rs 60,000, the road tax was 2 per cent. For two-wheelers costing between Rs 60,000 to Rs 4 lakh, the road tax was charged at 4 per cent. For two-wheelers costing over Rs 4 lakh, 5 per cent road tax was charged.

In case of cars, the previous road tax charged up to Rs 6 lakh was 2 per cent. For cars costing between Rs 10 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, the road tax was 6 per cent, while for the cars costing over Rs 20 lakh, the applicable tax was 8 per cent.

Justifying the decision, official sources said the Punjab Government was charging a minimum motor vehicle tax of 6 per cent on four wheelers.

Sources said a similar proposal was also under consideration of the Chandigarh Administration. The rates of road tax being charged by the Delhi Government were also on higher side, they added.

Meanwhile, entry 9 of Schedule A and entry 55 of Schedule B of the Haryana Value Added Tax Act, 2003, would be amended to levy more VAT on ‘bidi’.

Bhiwani, March 29
In a shocking incident of honour killing, a 21-year-old college girl was killed, allegedly by her father, at Serla village in Bhiwani yesterday and her body cremated clandestinely late in the evening by citing her death due to electrocution from an iron.

The girl, Shashi, who studied in a college at Hisar, had married Gautam, a boy of her choice who also studying in her college, against the wishes of her family on February 28.

The police has arrested the girl’s father, Satpal Dhankhar, for murder and causing disappearance of evidence under Sections 302 and 201 of the IPC after registering a case against him and some other unidentified persons, said Bhiwani Superintendent of Police Simardeep Singh.

The incident has sent shockwaves across the area.

Shashi had fallen in love with Gautam, her classmate from Khaparwas of Jhajjar.

The girl’s family came to know about the affair and was against their marriage.

The two, however, married in an Arya Samaj Temple at Bahadurgarh and the girl came back to continue her studies in Hisar.

The two had applied for the registration of their marriage before a magistrate in Hisar.

As per information gathered from the girl’s village, the victim’s parents took her to Serla from Hisar on some pretext on Wednesday.

On Thursday, they suddenly cremated her body in the village late in the evening, citing the cause of her death as electrocution.

Villagers got suspicious over the manner the family cremated the body secretly and some of them informed the police.

According to sources in the village, before her death in the evening, the girl was noticed with her father in the noon at Behl, the nearest town from Serla village, where Rs 2 lakh kept in her account was allegedly withdrawn.

A police party went to Hisar and brought the boy to Behl under its protection.

Gautam has alleged that Shashi and he were fearing attack from the girl’s family ever since they married last month.

In a statement recorded before the police, Gautam has alleged that Shashi had been done to death by her father as he was not happy with their marriage and had been threatening them with dire consequences. 

Chandigarh, March 29
The Haryana Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today, approved the proposal of the Finance Department for financial restructuring of the power distribution utilities.

The Cabinet also authorised the state level monitoring committee to take up the matter with the Central Government and finalise the Financial Restructuring Plan (FRP) with amendments, wherever required.

Under the scheme, as a part of the liability of the state government, it will take over the liability of Rs 8,162.09 crore of the two distribution power utilities by directly issuing bonds or infusion of funds for amount of 50 per cent of the liabilities calculated by March 31, 2012. These liabilities will be taken over in the next two to five years when the fiscal space so allows, as provided in the FRP.

The state government would also provide guarantees to the financial institutions on behalf of the distribution power utilities for their endeavour to access loans. The state government has already provided guarantee for raising loans by the power utilities to the extent of Rs 19,541.82 crore in 2013-14.

The state government has already provided Rs 1,246 crore in the second supplementary estimates to provide Rs 1,256.18 crore for arrears of the rural electrification subsidy and the fuel surcharge adjustment for the years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13.

The discoms would also require support from the Central Government which would include liquidity support by incentivising the discoms for accelerated Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT& C) loss reduction beyond 3 per cent annually for utilities with AT & C losses above 30 per cent and reduction beyond 1.5 per cent annually for utilities with AT&C losses below 30 per cent. The Central Government will reimburse support of 25 per cent of principal repayment of the state government for the liability taken over by it.

Insurance scheme

The Haryana Cabinet today decided in-principle to implement a new insurance scheme known as Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana (AABY) to provide life insurance protection to the rural and urban persons living below the poverty line and marginally above the poverty line and rural landless households. However, the Cabinet authorised the Chief Minister to finalise its modalities.

Under the AABY, which is a scheme of the Central Government, death and disability cover would be provided by the LIC of India to the beneficiaries. The head of the family or one earning member of the family in the age group of 18-59 years in case of death or disability will be insured. The Central Government will bear 50 per cent of the premium of Rs 200 per year per person through the social security fund and the remaining 50 per cent would be paid by the state government. To be eligible for the scheme, the members should be aged between 18 to 59 years, the member should normally be the head of the family or one earning member in the family of rural landless or rural or urban BPL or as defined by the Government of India/Haryana.

With the implementation of the new scheme, the existing scheme namely Rajiv Gandhi Pariwar Bima Yojana will thereafter cease to operate except for the payment of an amount of Rs 25,000 to the family members of the victims of accidental death (in addition to Rs 75,000 available under the Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana) which will be paid by the department on the receipt of intimation from the LIC for settlement of claim.

Shagun scheme

The Cabinet also decided to expand the scope of the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshani Vivah Shagun Scheme by extending its benefit to the beneficiaries of general categories -- non-Scheduled Castes and non-Backward Classes. However, the Cabinet authorised the Chief Minister to finalise its modalities.

While the Department of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes will continue to implement the scheme for beneficiaries of reserved categories, the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment would cover the beneficiaries of only general categories.

The scheme aims at providing financial assistance on the occasion of marriage of daughters of eligible beneficiaries which included the people of general categories living below the poverty line, widows living below the poverty line, families having land holding of less than 2.5 acres or income less than Rs 1 lakh per annum. Other such beneficiaries included destitute girls living in government or government-aided NGOs or institutions, orphan girls living with their guardians and the condition of BPL will not be applicable in this case.

VAT refunds

The Cabinet also approved the proposal of the Excise and Taxation Department to change the upper financial limits of various officers who are competent to allow refund arising out of a single order passed under the Haryana Value Added Tax Act, 2003. The decision would facilitate early refunds to the dealers under the Act.

As per the decision, a committee comprising three senior most Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioners posted at the headquarters from the departmental side with the senior most Additional Excise and Taxation Commissioner as Chairman of the Committee and Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioner (Taxation) as Member Secretary of the Committee will be competent to allow refund of above Rs 25 lakh. The officer in charge of the range will be competent to allow refund up to Rs 25 lakh. Similarly, officer in charge of the district will be competent to allow refund of up to Rs 10 lakh and Excise and Taxation Officer of Assistant Excise and Taxation Officer will be competent to allow refund up to Rs 1 lakh.

Knowledge corporation

The Haryana Government has decided to establish Haryana Knowledge Corporation Limited (HKCL) with a view to creating facilities for mass Information Technology (IT) literacy throughout the state.

The HKCL will be established in collaboration with Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) as the initiative taken up in the state of Maharashtra has proved highly successful in imparting IT skills on a large scale through MKCL. The successful experience of Maharasthra is now proposed to be replicated in Haryana.

The MKCL runs a basket of courses which are designed by the MKCL in their drive towards mass IT literacy and advanced level initiatives. Success of the MKCL initiative can be measured from the fact that it has so far (2002- 2012) imparted training and issued certificates to about 8 million persons.

Haryana Knowledge Corporation Limited is envisaged be a public limited company and not a government company. Except the initial equity support, its operations will be self-sustaining and it will be carrying out its operations without any financial support or burden on the state government.

Chandigarh, March 29
Putting all speculations to rest about the new Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to rest, the Haryana Government today decided to re-employ incumbent Chhatar Singh for a period of three months.

Chhatar, who is retiring on March 31, will be Hooda’s Principal Secretary till June 30 this year, sparking off debate in the bureaucratic and political circles about his continuation on the crucial post. In fact, failure of the Hooda Government to find Chhatar Singh’s successor is seen as buying of more time by the Hooda Government to effect a reshuffle in the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) ahead of next year’s Parliamentary and assembly elections in a bid to beat anti-incumbency by the state government.

In fact, a decision on his successor was awaited after today’s Cabinet meeting presided over by the Chief Minister. Already, hectic lobbying was being witnessed in the state bureaucracy for the top post in the CMO with names of four senior bureaucrats doing the rounds for the coveted post. The four contenders for the post include Additional Chief Secretary KK Jalan, Prinicipal Secretary (Industries) YS Malik, Principal Secretary, Department of Town and Country Planning, SS Dhillon and Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister KK Khandelwal. While Jalan is a 1982 batch IAS officer, Malik is an officer of the 1983 batch. Dhillon is 1984 batch IAS officer and Khandelwal from the 1985 batch.

Earlier, senior IAS officer (1980 batch) and Additional Secretary with the Union Government Ashok Lavasa was also considered to be one of the top contenders for the post.

The retention of Chhatar Singh for three months is seen as maintaining status quo in the CMO.

Another reason for his extension seems to be the failure of the Hooda Government to find a “suitable” post-retirement posting for the IAS officer. At one point of time, Chhatar Singh was tipped to be the Chairman of the proposed Haryana Real Estate Regulatory Authority. Since the constitution of the authority would take another at least two months, the state government seemed to have been given a re-employment for three months till he was ‘rehabilitated’ at some important position.

Chandigarh, March 29
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has stayed the operation of a memorandum whereby external development charges (EDC) were enhanced retrospectively by the State of Haryana and its functionaries.

The order came on a petition filed by Balwan Singh and other petitioners through counsel Parveen K. Kataria. Seeking the quashing of the impugned memo dated July 14, 2011, the petitioners had asserted that the respondents were already demanding enhancing EDC from developers, licensees and colonisers in the state.

The petitioners had added that enhanced EDC could not be charged as it was without “any authority of law and has not been calculated or charged as per provisions and guidelines issued under the Haryana Development & Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975”.

The counsel had also demanded that directions should be issued to the respondents to take appropriate measures to come out with guidelines for protecting the interests of the petitioners and other similarly situated persons.

This, he argued, was essential as the "companies" were taking benefit of incomplete and vague guidelines to “play big fraud” in calculating and charging EDC. He added that the state should also be directed to ensure there were “proper rules and guidelines so that there was transparent system of charging of EDC, interest etc from the petitioners and the public."

The counsel further added that the state and other respondents should also be restrained from collecting enhanced EDC retrospectively “and from taking coercive steps against the petitioners for recovery of enhanced EDC during the pendency of the present petition.”

Taking up the petition, the Division Bench of Justice Satish Kumar Mittal and Justice Amol Rattan Singh issued notice of motion to the State of Haryana and other respondents for April 10. Before parting with the order, the Bench directed: "In the meanwhile, till the next date of hearing, the operation of the impugned memo dated July 14, 2011, is stayed.”

Sirsa, March 29
Two village youths showed exemplary courage by saving a drowning woman by risking own lives at Chopta in Sirsa last night.

The woman Bala, a resident of Darba village, had gone to the Nohar Feeder Canal after a tiff with her husband last night.

She said she was sitting on the bridge when she suddenly lost control and fell into the deep canal.

Two youths, Satbir Singh and Rohtash Singh, who were passing by on their motorcycle, heard the woman’s cries for help and jumped into the canal without fearing its gushing waters.

Strong currents of the canal had swept the woman to a long distance.

However, the braveheart youths did not give up despite the gushing waters and the darkness of the night and managed to fish out the woman, who had lost her consciousness by then.

The youths took her to Chopta police station.

The woman gained consciousness after she was provided first aid.

She revealed her name as Bala, a resident of Meharwala in Rajasthan.

The woman informed the police that she lived at Darba village with her husband, where they eked a living by performing manual labour.

After an altercation with her husband, she ran out of her house at 10 in the night and went to the canal.

Meanwhile, Sube Singh Chaharwala, convener of an NGO, Nai Subeh, said that his organisation would felicitate the youths for their courage. 

Chandigarh March 29
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has decided to allot sites to recognised political parties on freehold basis to construct party headquarters at Panchkula.

A spokesman for HUDA here today said applications had been invited from recognised political parties for the allotment of sites in Sector 32 of Panchkula. The area of each site would be 4,087 square metres and it would have tentative cost of over Rs 8.29 crore. The last date for receipt of applications is April 29 this year.

He said only national recognised political parties and Haryana state recognised political parties would be eligible to apply. However, such political parties having no member in the Legislative Assembly of Haryana as on the last date of receipt of applications would not be eligible to apply. Apart from this, the political party would not be eligible to apply if a site had already been allotted to it in Panchkula urban estate, he added.

The format of application and terms and condition can be downloaded from HUDA’s websitewww.huda.gov.in.

Sonepat, March 29
The death of Rajpal of Halalpur village under mysterious circumstances on March 26, 2010, turned out to be a murder. It was allegedly conspired by a woman in Rajpal’s neighborhood identified as Shiela and she paid Rs 1 lakh to alleged killers for the murder.

A police spokesman said Ralpal’s body was recovered by the police from a ditch near the parallel canals within revenue area of the village. On the complaint of Rajpal’s brother Rajesh, a case against unidentified persons was registered at Kharkhoda police station. However, it remained unsolved for around three years.

However, on Monday when Rajesh and his mother were returning from the fields, they overheard some village youths talking about Rajpal’s murder under the influence of liquor. After returning home, they informed the police about it. The investigation of the case was handed over to the CIA unit.

Acting on the information, the CIA team arrested Sandeep, Deepak and Ravinder of the same village on Thursday. During interrogation, the accused confessed their involvement in the murder and said that Shiela had paid Rs 1 lakh to them for killing Rajpal.

After the arrest of the accused, the woman had gone missing and the police had been deputed a team to arrest her, the spokesman added.