Rohtak, May 5
A 21-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a youth here last evening. A case has been registered, but no arrest has been made so far. According to the complaint lodged with the police, the accused took the victim to his house last evening on some pretext and sexually assaulted her.

The victim told the police that she was at the Batakh Chowk locality when the accused met her and asked her to come to his house in connection with some work. However, she alleged that the accused raped her and fled before she could raise an alarm.

A case has been registered and the police has launched a hunt to nab the accused. 

Faridabad, May 5
The police here said the Faridabad Telecom District general manager PK Srivastava,accused of sexually harassing a woman officer, has "absconded". Station House Officer, Central, Vijay Kumar said the police has raided about a dozen places since yesterday evening. “He will be arrested soon”, Kumar added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Devender Singh yesterday said the arrest would be made after sufficient evidence was collected against the accused.

The team investigating the case has seized documents from his office to establish the links of the alleged harassment of the woman officer.

The police made raids in Faridabad and Delhi, including railway stations, in the past 24 hours hours. Three raids were conducted in the wee hours.

The victim has alleged that Srivastava had been harassing her for sexual favours since 2009. She further alleged that she was transferred a dozen times during this period.

Rohtak, May 5
Dr Tanu Priya, who passed out in November last year from the Post Graduate Institute of Dental Sciences (PGIDS) here has made the college faculty and University of Health Sciences proud by achieving the 18th rank in the Civil Services examination.

Hailing originally from Patna in Bihar, Dr Tanu joined the BDS course in 2007 and completed BDS degree in 2011. She was doing her Internship when she chose to take the Civil Services examination last year. Tanu, whose father is employed as a senior branch manager in the LIC at Gumla in Jharkhand, had opted for political science, sociology and international relations as the main subjects in the examination.

"I chose these subjects as I had a deep interest in such subjects though I could have gone for medical subjects also,’’ claimed Tanu. She said she studied for four to six hours daily while doing her internship at the PGIDS here and did not take any coaching.

Eldest of the three siblings, Dr Tanu said her preference was the IFS and the IAS.

Vice-Chancellor of Pt BD Sharma university of Health Sciences SS Sangwan and Dr Sanjay Tiwari, Principal of the PGIDS, have claimed that her achievement would inspire other students here.

Sirsa, May 5
The Sirsa police is still clueless to the incident of “burning alive of a woman” at Ramnagria village, near here, yesterday. The police so far has no clue to the victim or the culprits. Senior Superintendent of Police Raj Shri Singh said the police had not so far received any complaint of a missing woman from Sirsa or around.

The police, meanwhile, has sent the mortal remains of the victim to the PGIMS, Rohtak, for a postmortem and DNA tests. Three years ago, the police had recovered the head and torso of a woman from two places in Sirsa town.

The two body parts were packed neatly in two bags.

The police has not so far been able to establish the victim's identity .

Chandigarh, May 5
Failure to undertake development work in a proposed residential colony in Sonepat has cost Delhi-based coloniser Jindal Realcon Private Limited dear.

The Department of Town and Country Planning has not only cancelled the licence of the colony but has also taken over its administration to undertake the development work at the cost of the coloniser and the plot allottees.

In his order dated April 22, Anurag Rastogi, Director General, Town and Country Planning, said due to deficiencies conveyed to the builder from time to time, the renewal of license had been refused and the said license was deemed to be cancelled.

The Director General formed a committee headed by HUDA administrator, Rohtak, and comprising senior town planner, Rohtak, as member-secretary, and district town planner and executive engineer (HUDA), Sonepat, as members to oversee the development works at the colony.

The decision was taken consequent upon the cancellation of the licence as per the provisions of Section 19 of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975.

The section enjoins upon the Director-General to carry out or cause to be carried out the development works in the licensed colony and recover such charges as he may have to incur on the development works from the coloniser and plot-holders.

Jindal Realcon Private Limited was granted a licence to develop a colony on 13.31 acres in Sector 10 and 11 of Sonepat on November 27, 2006.

The licence was valid till November 28, 2008. However, the company allegedly failed to apply for the renewal of the licence and remove certain deficiencies, resulting in the cancellation of the licence.

Meanwhile, the coloniser has been restrained from selling of any unsold property in the colony.

The public is advised not to indulge in any sale, purchase or transaction with the licensees in respect of the said colony, the order stated.

Sirsa, May 5
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the appointment of five lab attendants in Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, in 2009, terming the selections as arbitrary.

Parmod Kumar, who alleged that the selections were not fair and meritorious candidates had been rejected by the university, had challenged the selections in the HC.

Justice Rajesh Bindal, who heard the civil writ petition filed by Parmod Kumar, sought an affidavit by the university registrar when the court, during hearing of arguments on March 4, 2013, found that the record submitted by the university was incomplete.

In his affidavit submitted to the HC, the university registrar, Dr Manoj Siwach, said in his affidavit that the candidates were called for interview on the basis of recommendations of the screening committee.

The affidavit said some candidates, who were declared ineligible earlier but declared eligible later on were also called for the interview.

“No specific criterion was fixed for the selection of candidates by the appointing authority. No marks were awarded by the members of the interview committee to any of the candidates. Only the names of the recommended candidates were mentioned,” the affidavit submitted by Dr Siwach on March 27, 2013, stated.

The court observed that the university interviewed 59 candidates and recommended five of them without providing any further details.

“One list of 76 candidates merely shows that their presence was marked. There is another list of 48 candidates out of which 17 were interviewed, but as regards their eligibility they were found deficient. As to how and when they were declared eligible is not borne out of the records. One of the selected candidates is out of the list, who was deficient in eligibility,” the judge observed in his order.

The court said no criteria was followed for short listing of candidates and no marks were awarded by the members of the interview committee, which led to an inescapable conclusion that the entire selection process was arbitrary. 

Yamunanagar/Ambala, May 5
Taking a leaf out of the problems faced by Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) in running two units at Yamunanagar and Khedar Thermal Power Plants, which remained out of operations last year, the Union Power Ministry has decided to curb dependency on Chinese equipment. In these units, most of the equipment are installed by Chinese firms.

The ministry has decided to give a push to indigenous thermal unit manufacturing companies to increase the capacity and produce more thermal units within the country.

This information was provided by Minister of Power Jyotiraditya Scindia in a reply tabled in the Lok Sabha to a query on performance of Chinese power equipment. The incidents of forced shutdown on Chinese units in Yamunanagar Thermal Power Station (2x300 MW) due to damage to HIP turbine rotor and failure of LP turbine blades and in Hisar Thermal Power Station - Unit 1 of 600 MW due to high vibration and blade damage were reported by HPGCL.

Generation equipment (boilers and turbine generators) for thermal generating units being imported from China are mostly being supplied by three major Chinese manufacturers, Dongfang Electric, Shanghai Electric and Harbin Power, along with their group companies.

Though as per a report by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), no problems with Chinese equipment were highlighted by the developers at large. However, the HPGCL had to spend crores of rupees on the repairs of the two units at Yamunanagar and one at Khedar after which these were put back in operations.

Following this, the Union minister revealed in the Lok Sabha that efforts were being made to create indigenous manufacturing capacity for supercritical equipment, for which BHEL has entered into technology collaboration with Alstom (France) and Siemens (Germany) for manufacturing the supercritical boiler and turbine generators. He said BHEL would also take up augmentation of its manufacturing capacity and is likely to achieve a capacity of 20,000 MW a year.

The Power Minister also stated that to encourage domestic suppliers and provide orders to them, bulk orders for 11,660 MW supercritical units for the NTPC and DVC and nine 800 MW supercritical units for the NTPC had already been approved by the government.

The government had decided to create a level-playing field for the domestic power equipment manufacturing industry by levying Customs duty at 5 per cent, countervailing duty at 12 per cent (as applicable and equal to excise duty on domestic industry from time to time) and special additional duty at 4 per cent on the imported power equipment of all categories.

Chandigarh, May 5
The Election Commission of India has decided to accept PAN card, driving licence and Aadhaar letter issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) as valid documents as proof for date of birth to be submitted with Form 6 and 8 by an applicant or elector for registration as an elector or correction in their existing entry in electoral rolls.

Shrikant Walgad, Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, said the revised list of documents to be accepted as proof for date of birth included birth certificate issued by the municipal authorities or district office of the Registrar of births and deaths or Baptism Certificate or birth certificate from the government or recognised school last attended by the applicant or any other recognised educational institution. He said passports could also be submitted as proof of date of birth.

He said documentary proof of age would be required only in those cases, where the age of the applicant is between 18 and 21 years. In all other cases, declaration of his age by the applicant would be taken as the proof of age. 

Kurukshetra, May 5
All admissions of Kurukshetra University campus courses will be done through online mode. KU Vice Chancellor Lt Gen (retd) Dr DDS Sandhu said in addition to introducing online mode, the KU will organize faculty-wise induction programmes for students in July, expose the students to career guidance, gender sensitization, environmental awareness and the optimum use of library facilities.

 “The number of departments under Special Assistance Programme (SAP), and Fund for Improvement of Science and Technology (FIST) Infrastructure in higher educational institutions will be increased in the current academic year. We will also sign MoUs with national and international laboratories, policy making agencies and research centres. Extension activities will be further enhanced during the year,” said Sandhu.

KU will begin student mentoring and counselling and extend placement facilities for students. KU will focus on further enriching its research profile by motivating the teaching faculty to bring projects from agencies like UGC, DST, UNDP, World Bank, ICHR. etc. Sandhu said KU will create a centralized research facility and equipment worth rupees fifteen crore will be purchased so that faculty of KU, its 362 affiliated colleges and universities in North can take benefit of centralized research facility. 

Ambala, May 5
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) has introduced a new computer-based consumer grievance redressal system (CGRS) in 11 districts-- Panchkula, Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Sonepat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Jind.

Devender Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of the UHBVN and the DHBVN, said here today that the new system would provide the complainant with a computer-generated request ID to track the complaint until it was resolved.

The new system would be helpful for officials also, particularly in knowing the reason for recurring of problems in a particular area and planning for redressing the problem. In case any consumer does not have computer or internet facility, he could avail the facility by visiting the office of any SDO (Operations) of the UHBVN.

If any consumer is not computer literate, he would be assisted by a UHBVN's employee in the SDO's office in making his complaint online.

The CMD said the web-based CGR application could assessed at http:/www.uhbvn.com. For online tracking, the complainant would enter the grievance tracking section at home page. The other way to track the grievance was by giving a call to the telephone number given on the website. 

Samalkha (Panipat), May 5
The construction of a flyover at Samalkha on the GT Road has no doubt reduced traffic congestion in the town, but the flyover has become a bane for local people as Haryana Roadways drivers are using the flyover and skipping the bus stand.

Hundreds of commuters wait in vain for boarding the bus, but very few buses touch the bus stand and drivers defy the orders of the government to stop at the bus stand. The matter was raised by RTI activist PP Kapoor who filed a complaint that five buses had dropped women, children and even handicaps on the flyover with no mode of commuting, especially at odd hours, and gave their registration numbers in March 2012, but no action was taken. When he asked about action taken against the erring drivers, no reply was given and when he sought the information on action under RTI on November 10, 2012, the GM transport was reluctant to part with the information.

Kapoor filed an appeal with the Appellate Authority, Director General Transport, Haryana, on February 6, 2013, who directed the GM (Transport) of Chandigarh, Faridabad and Ambala depots to take prompt action and provide information to the complainant failing which fine would be imposed on them.

The GMs concerned furnished the information which had those drivers and conductors of four buses, who had been fined Rs 1,000 each. The fine had been deducted from their salaries, the information revealed.

Kapoor said he had raised the issue of drivers skipping the Samalkha bus stand and not stopping there for dropping and lifting the passengers, causing great inconvenience to them and instructions were issued to the drivers and conductors not to bypass the Samalkha bus stand, but the instructions were observed more in breach than in compliance.

Kapoor said the erring drivers and conductors had also been chargesheeted. 

Chandigarh, May 5
The Education Department has released sports calendar for state school games for the year 2013-14.

According to the calendar, football Pre-Subroto Cup Inter-School for boys under 14 and 17 years age group and for girls under 17 will be organised at Gurgaon from July 8 to 10. The Hockey Pre-Nehru inter-school tournament for boys and girls under 17 and for boys under 15 will be organised at Shahbad (Kurukshetra) from July 31 to August 2. Tae kwon do and judo for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19 years age group and cricket for boys under 16 will be organised at Gurgaon from August 5 to 8.

Similarly, championships for swimming, diving, water polo and archery for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19 years age group and hockey for boys under 14, 17 and 19 years age group will be held at Sirsa from August 5 to 8. Boxing and football tournaments for boys under 14, 17 and 19; table tennis for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19; and softball for girls under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Bhiwani from August 19 to 22.

Boxing for girls under 17 and 19; and wrestling, volleyball and handball for boys under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Hisar from August 19 to 22. Basketball for girls under 14, 17 and 19; baseball and throw ball for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Karnal from August 26 to 29. Athletics and net ball for boys under 14, 17 and 19 years age group; and skating for boys and girls under 11, 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Rohtak from August 26 to 29.

Wrestling for girls under 19; yoga and kho-kho for boys under 14, 17 and 19; and fencing for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Jind from August 31 to September 3. Basketball and softball for boys under 14, 17 and 19 years age group and circle kabaddi for boys under 19 and cricket for boys under 14 will be organised at Sonepat from August 31 to September 3.

Gymnastics for boys and girls in the age group of under 14, 17 and 19 years; cricket for girls under 19; and football for girls under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Ambala from October 8 to 11.

Handball and kabaddi for girls in the age group under 14, 17 and 19 years will be organised at Kurukshetra from October 8 to 11. Hockey for girls in the age group under 14, 17 and 19; cycling for boys and girls under 17 and 19; and rifle shooting for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Shahbad from October 8 to 11.

Badminton and lawn tennis for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19; and athletics for girls under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Panchkula from October 14 to 17.

Volleyball and net ball for girls in the age group under 14, 17 and 19 years; and weight lifting for boys and girls under 17 and 19 will be organised at Yamunanagar from October 14 to 17. Kho-kho and yoga for girls in the age group under 14, 17 and 19 years; cricket for boys under 19; and circle kabaddi for girls under 19 will be organised at Panipat from October 21 to 24. Championships of chess for boys and girls under 14, 17 and 19; karate for boys and girls under 19; and kabaddi for boys under 14, 17 and 19 will be organised at Jhajjar from October 21 to 24.

Karnal, May 5
Five Haryana villages have been adopted as "Climate Smart Villages" under a pilot project to combat the effects of conventional agricultural technologies and raise the awareness of farming communities about various technological, institutional and policy options that have a potential to increase their climatic resilience, adaptation, agricultural productivity and income while reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

The Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an international organisation consisting of 15 global research centres, has been conducting a research for the past five decades on food security, poverty alleviation and sustainable management of natural resources in close collaboration with the National Agricultural Research System (NARS) for providing widely adaptable technologies, especially new varieties of rice, wheat and maize, which have remarkably increased agricultural production, ensured food and livelihood security for millions of people and significantly contributed in reducing poverty in the developing countries.

Recently, the CGIAR came up with focused research programmes on specific themes and Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) introduced the concept of "Climate Smart Villages (CSVs)" in India with adoption of five villages, Sandheer, Pakhana, Beer Nariyana, Anganthali and Traveri in Haryana.

Conventional agricultural technologies and farming practices to meet the increasing foodgrain demand has resulted in many second generation problems of land degradation, declining underground water table, diminishing factor productivity and high production cost and thus making farming unsustainable and unattractive to the rural youth.

Agriculture share of freshwater supplies is likely to decline by 8 to 10 per cent because of increasing competition from the urban and industrial sectors and overexploitation and poor management of groundwater in many parts of the country have led to dropping water table and negative environmental impacts. The conservation agriculture-based cropping system management technologies have been evolved as the potential solution of all these problems and have demonstrated "climate smart" way of farming.

However, outscaling of these relatively knowledge intensive technologies and practices compared to the Green Revolution technologies are not that easy with the current approaches and significant efforts are being made on development and dissemination of new technologies, including climate smart practices through various national and international institutions and programmes but the adoption of these new agri-technologies has remained slow due to several factors.

This work is being facilitated by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre and implemented together with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Haryana Agricultural University, the State Department of Agriculture, the Haryana Farmers' Commission, private sector organisations and farmers cooperatives and in collaboration with the International Water Management Institute, the International Food Policy Research Institute and other centres.

An in-field consultation was organized in the CCAFS village cluster involving all members of the farmers cooperatives in this regard on early this week which was attended by Dr Clare Sterling, CIMMYT-CCAFS leader from Mexico, Dr David Powlson, Rothemsted, the United Kingdom, Dr ML Jat, CIMMYT-CCAFS South Asia coordinator together with a range of stakeholders to discuss this innovative model and see that how it can be replicated in other regions of the world.

The farmers will be linked to policy through participating technology adaption and the main components will be making the farmers smart by giving knowledge on carbon smart, nutrient smart, water smart, technology smart, knowledge smart, laser leveling, zero tillage and diverfication of rice with maize.

Gurgaon, May 5
The Haryana Backward Classes Commission (HBCC) will conduct a public hearing at the PWD (B&R) rest house in Gurgaon from 11 am to 2 pm on May 6.

A spokesman for the district administration said the HBCC would consider the representations, objections, suggestions, views and opinions of various organisations, groups and individuals of Goswami or Gosain, Muslim Jats and Gayana castes for the inclusion of these castes in the state list of the Backward Classes.

As per the schedule issued by HBCC Secretary RS Verma, the commission will hold similar public hearing from 11 am to 2 pm at the PWD rest house in Faridabad on May 7. He appealed to all concerned and interested parties/persons to reach the venue in time with all relevant documents.

Chandigarh, May 5
The INLD has demanded a high-level judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge into all land scams in Haryana during the Hooda regime and restoration of SEZ land to farmers.

Senior INLD leader and MLA from Ellenabad Abhey Singh Chautala said the land taken from farmers had been given to the big industries for SEZ, but now allowed to make colonies. “Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had cheated farmers in the name of SEZs and promised that SEZs will generate 20 lakhs jobs and millions of investments in the projects. But this has been clear from the Cabinet's decision that the Hooda government is planning to make money from the farmers' land while selling this land for property dealing,” Abhey said.

He said they had raised the issue of SEZ and other land scams in the Haryana Vidhan Sabha and had given a memorandum to the Governor as well. Now, this has been clear that Hooda and his team have cheated the farmers for their own interest and benefits on the name of SEZs. Other than this, the Hooda government has also made a big scam of providing CLU to more than 22,000 acres of land.

Not only this the government had given 1,384 acres of Haryana Industrial development Corporation’s land near Gurgaon to Reliance without any tender or open bid.

He said the Hooda government had given the land to Reliance at a very low price and Reliance also purchased thousands of acres from farmers with the government's blessings in the name of SEZs, but now Hooda had permitted them to make colonies on that land which clearly shows that it is for the benefit of the private companies not for the state or farmers. He raised a question that when there was HSIDC in Hayrana, what was the need for giving permission to the private companies to make industrial colonies. 

Chandigarh, May 5
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has offered 888 freehold residential plots in Sector 14 (Part II) and 1,990 residential plots in Sector 33 (Part I), Hisar, for which the booking would commence on May 9 and close on July 8.

These residential plots are situated in well planned Urban Estate with provision of quality infrastructure and public utility services. Allotment of plots would be made through draw of lots. There will be facility to make payment in easy instalments. Only 10 per cent of the cost would be payable with application, 15 per cent within one month of allotment and balance in six equated yearly instalments, an official said.

He added that reservation exits for various categories like Schedule Caste or Schedule Tribes, Backward classes, Handicapped or Blind, War Widows or Disabled soldiers, other widows, Freedom Fighters, their widows and their Children and Grand Children , Defence Personnel, Para-Military Forces Personnel, Haryana Government Servants, Advocates and dependents of Officials of Haryana Police killed in action or encounter of Haryana Domicile. He said that an individual would be eligible to make only one application in this scheme and an individual who has already been allotted a plot by HUDA in Urban estate Hisar would not be entitled to apply under this scheme, he added.

The application form could be downloaded from the website www.huda.gov.in and the same could be used for applying. Applicants could also apply online on HUDA website.

Faridabad, May 5
The HJC-BJP’s state coordination committee meet, which was scheduled for May 11, has been preponed by a day.

Also, the venue of the meeting has been changed from Ambala to Karnal. Dharampal Malik, chairperson of the coordination committee and senior HJC leader, said the schedule of the meeting had been revised on account of pressing social commitments of state BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma. Meanwhile, the HJC has decided to take part in the BJP’s proposed door-to-door campaign starting from May 15.