Hisar, November 21
The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has closed a case related to a dispute between upper castes and Dalits at Bhagana village in the district. The NCSC said the issue had been resolved following the intervention of the commission.

A caste row had taken an ugly turn last year following a dispute between the two communities over shamlat land. Around 125 Dalit families had migrated from the village fearing threat from the upper castes.

Later, the authorities persuaded the members of both the communities and demolished the wall on a piece of shamlat land around four months ago which was a bone of contention.

The NCSC, in communication to the district administration, stated that Surender Singh and others of Bhagana village had made a representation to the commission for redressal of their grievances pertaining to the issue of around 125 families that were forced to migrant and they had another issue related to a wall which was erected around a chowk in the village.

“The case was taken up with the civil and police administration. A number of hearings were held in the commission for redressal of their grievances”.

NCSC chairperson PL Punia stated in a letter that with the intervention of the commission, the families, who were forced to migrate from the village and camping at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, had been sent back to their village. “The wall around the chowk had been demolished which was the main cause of the case. Since the main grievance has been solved, the case stands closed,” the letter mentioned.

However, a few Dalits from Bhagana village have been sitting on a dharna outside the DC office at the mini-secretariat here.

They had even chopped off some trees from the mini-secretariat complex to use as fuel for preparing food. Some of them who are dealing in scrap have also started using the complex for commercial activities and a portion has been turned into a godown to store heaps of gathered waste material.

Virender Kumar, who is leading the protesters, said around 20 people of their community had been sitting on a dharna. “So far, no one has raised any objection to the use of space and we would shift the scrap elsewhere if the authorities ask us to do so”, he said.

Row resolved A row erupted between the upper caste people and the Dalits over shamlat land at Bhagana village in the district last year. Around 125 Dalit families had migrated from the village fearing threat from upper castes The authorities then persuaded both the communities and demolished the wall on shamlat land four months ago which was the bone of contention. The case was taken up with the civil and police administration and a number of hearings were held for the redressal of their grievances The NCSC said with its intervention, the families which were forced to migrate and were camping at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, had been sent back to their village

Gurgaon, November 21
Two persons were killed and two others injured when members of a rival group opened fire at them at Behrampur village in the district today.

The violence is a sequel to a long-standing dispute between two groups over a small chunk of land.

The deceased have been identified as Kulbeer and Jagminder and those injured are Bijender and Ajay.

Bijender is said to have received serious injuries on his chest and abdomen.

The deceased were being taken to a private hospital when they succumbed to the injuries.

Gurgaon Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Sharma said an FIR had been registered in the case and 10 persons had been booked.

Three of the accused, identified as Daya Chand, Mohinder and Deepak of Behrampur, have been arrested.

The other accused are absconding. The police have constituted five teams to nab them.

The two groups were locked in an intense dispute over a piece of land located in the village for four years.

A number of panchayat meetings were convened by the villagers to resolve the issue, but to no avail.

The victims had assembled in the courtyard of a friend’s house in the afternoon.

The accused, armed with guns and country-made weapons, made a sudden appearance and attacked them.

Meanwhile, Behrampur is tense following the incident. A police officer said the situation was under control.

Chandigarh, November 21
The Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC) made a record profit of Rs 1.76 crore during the tenure of whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka whom the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government wanted to chargesheet for allegedly selling low quantity of wheat seeds.

In a development that can prove shot in the arm for the whistleblower IAS officer, the audited financial statement for the year 2012-13, approved by the HSDC Board of Directors recently, showed that the operating income of the HSDC also increased by 14 per cent from Rs 3.46 to Rs 3.94 per rupee of subsidy received from the state government.

Khemka was the Managing Director of HSDC from October 15, 2012 to April 4 this year. He was transferred after cancelling the mutation of the land deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF.

However, sources said the income from government subsidies went down by Rs 11.9 crore during 2012-13 as compared to the previous year. If the subsidy level to HSDC was kept at the same level as previous year during the year 2012-13, the corporation would have been in a comfortable position to liquidate the balance unsold wheat stocks of 87,000 quintals because the subsidy on unsold wheat stocks would have worked to Rs1,358 per quintal (Rs 11.9 crore).

On November 5 last year, the Department of Agriculture reportedly issued instructions to its field offices and the Haryana State Seed Certification Agency banning the sale of certified seeds of wheat to private producers outside the state.

Putting the record straight The HSDC made a record profit of Rs 1.76 crore during the time when whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka was its Managing Director (October 15, 2012-April 4, 2013) The audited financial statement for the year 2012-13, approved by the HSDC Board of Directors, shows that the operating income of the HSDC increased by 14 per cent from Rs 3.46 to Rs 3.94 per rupee of subsidy received from the state government Khemka was transferred after cancelling the mutation of the land deal between UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF

Sirsa, November 21
For cotton-producing states witnessing suicides by farmers embroiled in debt-traps, the results of trials on “high-density planting” of the crop by the Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) here to improve its productivity can bring new hope for the future.

Though harvesting of crop on land where CICR scientists sowed cotton under “high-density plantation” is still not over, the first phase of picking of cotton has indicated that the productivity can be increase by 40 to 50 per cent by adopting this technique.

The National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) figures for 2011 showed that suicide rates among Indian farmers were a chilling 47 per cent higher than the other population and two-third of these suicides were in five top cotton-producing states Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

“Cotton has no longer remained a profitable venture for farmers in Haryana and Punjab too,” said Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer from Kirpal Patti in Sirsa.

“With input costs on seeds, fertiliser and pesticides increasing and cotton prices not showing the corresponding increase, cotton is becoming a loss-making crop for farmers,” he added. “High-density planting” , as the name suggests, involves closer spacing of cotton plants from the present 67.5 cm (row to row) X 60 cm (plant to plant) to 67.5 cm (row to row) X 10 cm (plant to plant).

While in the current system, the number of plants is 2,4691 in one hectare, by close spacing, the number of plants increases to 14,8148 in a hectare of land. Increased number of plants leads to increased number of hence bolls, which automatically leads to increased productivity of the crop. Dalip Monga, a Principal Scientist and head of the regional centre of the CICR at Sirsa, under whose guidance the trials are being held, said that in the first picking itself, a yield of 20 quintal per hectare had been received and he hoped to get at least eight quintals per hectare more till the harvesting was completed. The national average of cotton productivity in India is 15 quintal per hectare while in north India, it is 18 quintal per hectare.

This is against the world average of 22.5 quintals (750 kilogram lint) per hectare, said Monga.

“India stands at number one in the world so far as area under cotton is concerned and it is second to China in the matter of total production and total export of cotton. But when it comes to productivity per hectare, our country stands at the 24th position in the world with even Pakistan having a better productivity,” said Dr Monga.

The CICR had set up 2,600 demonstration plots covering 37 districts of the country this year for trials on “high density planting” of cotton.

While a majority of these demonstration plots were in southern and central India, 12 plots were set up in Sirsa, where almost one-third of Haryana’s total cotton is produced. 

Chandigarh, November 21
The Haryana Government has issued a banking policy regarding the selection of banks for conducting business, which will increase the number of already empanelled banks and add more private banks. The policy aims at ensuring uniformity and transparency in conducting government business.

An official spokesman said at present, 26 public sector banks, six private banks and two regional rural banks were empanelled to transact government business. It had been decided that all these banks would continue to be empanelled for transacting government business. Specific orders, in respect of more banks to be empanelled, would be issued by the Department of Institutional Finance and Credit Control (IFCC) from time to time, he added. He said it had been decided that all the banks empanelled by the state were supposed to fulfil the requirement of participation in various government-sponsored schemes on the basis of targets set for them, either by the state-level bankers committee (SLBC) or the government.

He said the state government would monitor their functioning for six months and in the event of non-achievement of the targets in two consecutive six-monthly reviews, ie, for a period of one year, decision regarding the de-empanelment of the bank would be taken.

The list of empanelled banks in Haryana included Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, Corporation Bank, Dena Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India, United Bank of India, UCO Bank, Vijaya Bank and IDBI Bank amongst the public sector banks. Similarly, from SBI and Associate Banks, it includes State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Mysore and State Bank of Travancore. From private sector banks, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank, YES Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank have been empanelled. Haryana Gramin Bank, Rohtak and Gurgaon Gramin Bank, Gurgaon, have been empanelled as the regional rural banks. 

Fatehabad, November 21
A couple was killed while their teenaged daughter, Komal (19), was critically injured in a road accident on Hisar road here late last night. Komal was shifted to a hospital in Hisar in a critical condition.

Harish Mehta, a resident of Sirsa, was posted as a sub-inspector in the Food and Supplies Department at Bhuna in Fatehabad.

He along with his wife Saroj (45) and daughter Komal had gone to Bhiwani to attend a marriage function. While returning, his car collided with a stationary vehicle near Gurukul Ved Mandir on the outskirts of Fatehabad. The driver escaped with the vehicle soon after the accident.

Bhindawas (Jhajjar), November 21
The dense and widespread growth of water hyacinth in the huge Bhindawas lake seems to have taken its toll on the number of migratory birds visiting the wetland during the winter.

The Bhindawas wetland, situated about 15 km from Jhajjar town, was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1986. Spread over 1,074 acres, it is much bigger than the Sultanpur bird sanctuary near Gurgaon and has been attracting nearly 200 species of migratory as well as resident birds during the winter.

As of now, resident as well as migratory birds of a few species, including grey heron, mallard, purple moorhen, shoveler, painted stork, coot, pintail and wigeon etc can be seen at the wetland.

Nonetheless, the number as well as species of the winter guests has steadily declined during the past few years.

Wildlife inspector Kuldeep Sharma admits that the number of winged visitors has declined due to the dense growth of water hyacinth in the lake.

Inquiries made by this correspondent revealed that a plan mooted to develop the sanctuary as an international tourist destination has been gathering dust in government offices. The sanctuary also lacks proper fencing and well-equipped surveillance system to keep off anti-social elements.

However, inadequate focus and funds provided to the sanctuary by the Central as well as state governments have left it in a poor state of maintenance.

Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi asserts that the district administration has roped in private companies like Reliance to get the water hyacinth removed from the Bhindawas lake as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative in the recent past.

“We have also sent a proposal to the state authorities in this regard, and work to remove water hyacinth on a large scale would be initiated once we get their nod and requisite sanction,” he states.

Jhajjar, November 21
Having observed the successful state-level ‘chakka jam’ strike for two days consecutively last week, employees of the Haryana Roadways have again started gearing up to mount pressure on the Congress-led state government for getting their long-pending demands met.

The agitating Haryana Karamchari Taalmel Committee, a group of various employees’ unions of the state, has now chalked out a plan to organise a state-level ‘Employees Rally’ in Rohtak, the home town of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, on December 22.

At the rally, the employees will not only decide their future course of action to fight decisive battle against the state government but also give a massage of unity among employees against ‘discriminatory’ attitude being adopted by the government towards them.

Virender Singh Dhankhar, senior vice-president of the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh, disclosed this here today. He said the successful strike of the employees had got the government realised that now it can no longer misguide the employees by making hollow assurances.

“We will not sit calmly until the government does not fulfil the demands,” said Dhankhar, adding that, all unions of the employees would take part in the rally to ensure its grand success.

Chandigarh, November 21
The Haryana Government has constituted the Haryana Haj Committee comprising 14 members, including three MLAs,

A spokesman of the Administration of Justice Department said its members included Aftab Ahmad, Transport Minister; Jaleb Khan, Chief Parliamentary Secretary; and Akram Khan, MLA. Haji Shamshad of Ferozpur Jhirka, Maulvi Anwar of Palwal, Maulana Abdul Subhan of Hingpura, Mewat, all experts in Muslim theology and law, have been included in the committee.

The other five members representing voluntary organisations and Muslim bodies are Halimuddin Khan of Rohtak, Munish Ahmed Ansari of Panipat, Mohammad Zafruddin of Nuh, Mewat; Master Aslam of Pema Khera village , Mewat, Javed Khan of Sonepat, Mohammad Salim Khan of Panchkula, Kaneez Fatima and Gulzar Nanda, both of Yamunanagar district .

Kurukshetra November 21
As many as 16 cases were settled on the spot while bail was granted in 13 cases at a Lok Adalat held on the district jail premises here.

Lok Adalat was organised by the District Legal Service Authority.

It was presided over by District and Sessions Judge Lalit Batra.

Batra listened to the problems of 500 prisoners, directed the authorities concerned to address their grievances on the spot, inspected the district jail kitchen and tasted the food to check its quality.

District Additional Sessions Judges Ranjna Aggerwal and Amandeep Dewan, Chief Judicial Magistrates Sudhir Parmar and Jarnail Singh, District Jail Police Superintendent SPS Chauhan and Deputy Superintendent Devi Dayal, AIPRO Narender Singh and Sessions Court Superintendent Radhey Shyam were also present on the occasion.

Yamunanagar, November 21
Work on relaying the 7.5-km stretch of National Highway (NH) 73 from Raipur on the outskirts of the town to Mandauli on the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh border got underway a few days back, but there is no respite for thousands of commuters who take this road each day to reach their destinations.

The stretch, which is the only road connecting Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, has been in a deplorable condition for the last one year. This road was washed away in floods in June. In May, the district administration issued a statement that work on damaged roads in the district was started on a war footing and Rs 47.27 crore was likely to be spent on it

Work on NH-73 was started a few days back, leaving commuters high and dry. The relaying of the road has led to slow movement of traffic and long traffic jams. The district administration has banned the movement of heavy vehicles, including tractor-trolleys, from 8 am to 8 pm, but mismanagement by the police is often leading to traffic congestion.

Suresh Kumar, a local resident who travels to Saharanpur every day, said no proper alternative route had been provided. He said only long-route buses had been diverted via Paonta Sahib while short-route buses took hours to cover the stretch.

Plying of tractor-trolleys and trucks is allowed at night, but some tractor-trolleys and trucks overturn due to deep ditches, leading to traffic jams till the afternoon. Some tractor-trolley drivers alleged that policemen forced them to shell out Rs 300 or Rs 400 for using the road the morning after they got caught in traffic jams at night.

Nitish Singh, another local resident, said NH-73 almost did not exist in Yamunanagar and mismanagement on the part of the authorities was creating more trouble for commuters than solutions even though work on relaying the road had begun.

Ambala, November 21
The Haryana Discoms have asked Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) to scrap the four units of the Panipat thermal plant as these have become financially nonviable.

The Haryana Power Purchase Centre (HPCC), in its letter dated October 24, 2013, has intimated the HPGCL authorities that as the rates of power supplied from unit I to IV of the Panipat thermal station are nonviable for the HPGCL, it may consider scrapping these. Till then, power generated from these units may be sold in the open market, so that no fixed charges are paid by the discoms as per the rules and regulations. The latter clearly stated that the power generated from these units was not required by the discoms.

The discoms have claimed that the first four units of the Panipat thermal plant were commissioned more than 25 years ago between 1979 and 1987 and the cost per unit from these units is more than Rs 5.

Meanwhile, the move has not gone down well with the Northern India Power Engineers Federation, who said it would be suicidal for the Haryana Discoms to opt for power purchase from the private sector power suppliers at the cost of state-run units.

RS Dahiya, president of the Haryana Power Generation Engineers Association, said the HPGCL was bound to sell its total power generated from different power stations to discoms of Haryana as per the notification dated April 4, 2008.

The HPGCL has already started the process of setting up of two units of 250 and 300-MW capacity at Panipat after the approval of the Chief Minister.

Faridabad, November 21
The Faridabad circle of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) appears to be faced with a Herculean task of recovering the pending power bills to the tune of nearly Rs 400 crore.

The department has launched a special drive to recover the pending amount in the circle having over 5.65 lakh connections.

Out of the total 1.78 lakh defaulters in the region, around 88,000 defaulters, who owe a sum of around Rs 151 crore, are still drawing power from the department. These include several government departments The authorities have now decided to upload the names and details of the top defaulters on its website.

Sources said the 1.78 lakh defaulters owed around Rs 400 crore to the department.

The department had already disconnected the power supply of nearly 86,000 defaulters who owed around 199 crore to the corporation.

“We have already launched a drive to recover the pending amount. Rs 20 crore has already been recovered during the past month,’’ said RS Yadav, Superintending Engineer, DHBVN. Admitting that several government departments were among the major defaulters, he said the Municipal Corporation owed around Rs 19 crore, while departments like HUDA, agriculture, irrigation, public health, PWD, police also owed certain amount as pending bills. The line loss in the circle had gone down to 20 per cent over the past few years, it is added.

Chandigarh, November 21
Giving advantage to government departments, industry, group of industries, hospitals and educational institutions, the UHBVN and the DHBVN have issued new guidelines to sanction 11-kV independent feeders.

Anurag Agarwal, Managing Director, UHBVN and DHBVN, said here today that the independent feeder (s) for all government departments, public water works, defence services, telephone exchanges, AIR, educational institutions, Railways, sewerage and treatment plants, government chilling plants etc. shall be allowed on a load of 100 KW or more.

Approved private educational institutions, individual or group of hospitals, nursing homes having intensive care units, operation theatres or indoor facility run by either trust, societies or even individuals such as shopping malls, shopping centres etc industries, individual, group of industrial consumer would be allowed to get independent feeders on a load of 250 KW or more.

The facility of having independent feeder would be available as long as the number of consumers connected on an independent feeder were restricted to five with a ceiling of 250 ampere load current on 11-kV feeder.

Where more than five consumers are connected on an independent feeder, that feeder shall be considered as general feeder and the billing to the consumers shall be done on the basis of consumption recorded in the meters.

The independent feeder having one to five prospective consumers shall be sanctioned by the superintending engineer(operation) concerned. 

Sirsa, November 21
Rich tributes were paid to Ram Chander Chhatrapati, editor of Poora Sach, on his 11th death anniversary during the Chhatrapati Smriti Samaroh organised jointly by Samvad, an NGO, and the Haryana Journalist Association here today.

Chhatrapati was shot at by assailants outside his house in Sirsa on October 24, 2002, and he had succumbed to injuries on November 21 that year. Chief of Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh is the prime accused in the Chhatrapati murder case. This year’s Chhatrapati Samman was conferred on Prof Jagmohan Singh, while the Chhatrapati Journalism Award was given to Mani Kant Mayank.

Karnal, November 21
Taking strong exception to the demand for shifting Kalpana Chawla Medical College and Hospital being constructed over an area of 43 acres in the heart of the city to Kutel village made by AICC member Suresh Gupta, the Karnal Chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) today said in an era of vertical construction, 40-acre area was more than enough for Rs 650 crore project.

The panchayat of Kutel village had offered to give 100 acres of land for the medical college. “Area alone is not the only consideration and other criteria have to be kept in mind for quality medical services and the people would benefit more if the college is located in the heart of the city,” said Dr Rajiv Gupta, spokesperson, IMA.

Haryana Chamber of Commerce vice-president Manbeer Chaudhry also expressed similar views and hoped that the Kalpana Chawla Medical College, which was the biggest achievement for the people of the town in the past 47 years, would be developed on the pattern of the PGI and people would not be required to go to Chandigarh, Rohtak or Delhi for specialised treatment.

Citing the example of AIIMS, New Delhi, Chowdhary said it had come over an area of only 20-30 acres.

Residents of the city had agitated for long and emotionally attached to the project and it would not be a befitting tribute to Kalpana Chawla if the project was dragged into any controversy, he said. Observing that the construction work of the medical college is underway, he said creating any sort of controversy by raking up non-issues did not augur well for the speedy implementation of the project. Chowdhary said, “I can construct two world-class medical colleges on 43 acres if the government is willing to develop the project in private sector.”

Sonepat, November 21
BPS Women University, Khanpur Kalan, has been conferred with four Indira Gandhi National Awards in the field of National Service Scheme (NSS) by the President of India.

The award winners include university’ NSS coordinator Dr Shushma Joshi, students Pooja Sharma and Pooja Kumari as the best NSS volunteers and the Institute of the Higher Learning of the university as the best college in NSS activities.

The awardees were given warm welcome by the Vice Chancellor Dr Pankaj Mittal, Registrar Prof Asha Kadian and others after they arrived here today.

The Vice Chancellor said the awardees had not only given exemplary contribution in the national-level NSS activities but had also participated in the Republic Day parades and Independence Day programmes in New Delhi. 

Karnal, November 21
Even as more than 150 persons have volunteered to donate their bodies after their death in the district so far, the authorities concerned have failed to make proper arrangements to process their requests for body preservation.

The members of Liberty Workers Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, after an agitation against alleged exploitation and non-payment of minimum wages, have offered to donate their bodies to help the students for medical research.

These workers faced downsizing in 2006.

Sunil Kumar, president, Liberty Workers Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, said, “We have been rendered jobless and are unable to contribute to the society. We feel that donating our bodies for a noble cause is something we can do.”

The Fight for Justice Club of India, which started the “Aao Jahan Karen Roshan, Mitayen Netrahinta ka Andhiyara”, has decided to get 1,000 people to donate their bodies on the New Year (January 1, 2014).

The club had evoked an overwhelming response and a record 20,000 people had welcomed the New Year (January 1, 2013) by signing eye donation forms in one go.

Advocate Harish Arya, president, Fight for Justice Club of India, said the masses have shed inhibitions and are willing to donate bodies but there is no provision to take the body immediately after the death and preserve it.

Vandana Bhatia, Karnal Chief Medical officer (CMO), said the forms for body donation were available. Only one donated body had been received in Karnal in the past five years, she said.

The arrangements for body donation exist in medical colleges, she said. She further said since the medical college in Karnal was under construction, there was no facility for preservation of bodies at present.

The volunteers who wish to donate bodies can take the form from the Civil Hospital and get it deposited at the anatomy department of PGI Rohtak or Miri Piri Institute of Medical Sciences in Shahbad Markanda.

Karnal Chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) spokesperson Rajiv Gupta said bodies were required for experiments and teaching in the medical colleges for studying human anatomy. Most of the bodies used in research were unclaimed bodies, he said.

It has been observed that even after a body has been pledged, the final decision of informing the medical college lies with the relatives of the deceased who at the time of death insist on performing the last rites. 

Chandigarh, November 21
The IAF chief, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, visited Ambala Air Force Station, the oldest airbase of the IAF, as it completed 75 years of its existence.

The Air chief, accompanied by his wife, Kiran Browne, arrived at the airbase where the platinum jubilee celebrations were organised. The event was attended by officers associated with the station, including Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh, who had once commanded the station, a statement issued here said.

On arrival, the Air chief and his wife were received by Air Commodore DK Patnaik, Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station, Ambala, and his wife, Anuradha.

He also paid tributes to the martyrs at the Frozen Tear war memorial at the station, met the station personnel and visited key installations of the airbase. The visit forms a part of the farewell tour of the Air chief, who retires next month.

The Air Chief’s association with Ambala airbase dates back to when he was a Flight Lieutenant who formed a part of the initial core team that flew in Jaguar fighters from the UK to India to raise the very first Jaguar Squadron - No.14 Squadron, called The Bulls, at Ambala. Established on April 1, 1938, with a few officers and a defined role of training in the Army--air cooperation, the Ambala Air Force Station has now one of the premier IAF airbases.

Chandigarh, November 21
The state government has so far allotted over 3.82 lakh residential plots measuring 100 square yards under the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojana (MGGBY).

An official spokesman said here today that about 1.44 lakh such plots had been allotted to BPL beneficiaries and 72,032 to non-BPL beneficiaries of the Scheduled Castes. Similarly, 46,109 and 45,856 plots had been allotted to BPL and non-BPL beneficiaries, respectively, belonging to the BC(A) category whereas 74,563 plots to the beneficiaries of other BPL families.

The spokesman said the highest number of 31,556 plots had been allotted in Karnal district, followed by 27,314 in Sonepat and 25,929 in Sirsa, 25,225 in Panipat, 22,882 in Yamunanagar, 22,608 in Palwal, 22,241 in Hisar, 22,060 in Mewat and 20,972 in Bhiwani.

He said 20,438 plots had been allotted in Rewari district, 20,160 in Mohendragarh, 18,378 in Kaithal, 17,653 in Ambala, 17,632 in Kurukshetra, 17,320 in Jhajjar, 12,341 in Jind, 9,503 in Gurgaon, 8,697 in Rohtak, 8,263 in Faridabad, 5,940 in Fatehabad and 5,020 in Panchkula.

Rohtak, November 21
Whether the Assembly elections in Haryana are held side by side with the Lok Sabha polls next year or not, all political parties here have started flexing their muscles.

While the ruling Congress is apparently complacent after its Gohana rally held recently, the opposition parties, including the INLD and the HJC, are contemplating holding parallel shows of strength in Rohtak and Hisar respectively.

The fact that the culmination of HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi’s yatra and the INLD’s youth and student conventions are to be held on the same day on December 1, the situation has turned quite interesting. HJC workers are striving hard to put up a big show at their citadel, Hisar, on the eve of the party’s foundation day.

HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi, who is also better known as an “NRI leader” owing to his frequent foreign jaunts, is busy touring the length and breadth of the state.

On the other hand, the INLD also seems to be working hard with a multi-pronged approach to keep its cadres together and put up a strong face before the electorate.

Having launched an extensive image-building campaign on social media in a bid to impress the educated and techno-savvy urban voters, the INLD leadership is now targeting the youth. The party has decided to hold a convention of its students and youth activists on December 1 in Rohtak. During the convention, the INLD youth activists plan to pledge their eyes for donation in large numbers to set a record of sorts.

Budding INLD leaders Digvijay and Dushyant are also on a yatra to mobilise support for the convention.

Whether the yatras and rallies are able to make a dent in the ruling party’s bid to make a hat-trick, the political temperature is all set to rise in the days to come in the state.

Yamunanagar, November 21
The district police yesterday registered a case of kidnapping against unidentified persons after a 14-year-old inmate of Bal Kunj, a children’s shelter home, went missing on Tuesday afternoon.

The home is being run by the Women and Child Welfare Department. The case was registered on a complaint filed by Mona, superintendent of the shelter home, who informed the police that 14-year-old Shivani, who had gone to attend school, did not return.

After all efforts to trace the girl proved futile, the police registered a case of kidnapping against unidentified persons and started investigations in the matter. Last year, the shelter home had hit headlines after one of its inmates, Khushbu, had gone missing on May 30. A magisterial inquiry was ordered but the report was never made public.

Bal Kunj houses around 180 inmates.

Kaithal, November 21
The district police have arrested a truck driver for staging loot of his truck loaded with basmiti worth over Rs 20 lakh on November 16 night near Pabnawa village in the district.

Following investigations, it came to light that the truck driver, who was under debt, staged the drama of looting the paddy-laden truck and got himself tied to a tree with the help of his accomplice near Kurukshatra.

The police have also arrested three other persons in the case.

The police have recovered 386 bags of paddy and efforts are on to recover the remaining 104 bags and the truck.

A team led by Sub-Inspector Satyavan investigated the case and arrested the truck driver who during interrogation confessed to his crime.

The Superintendent of Police (SP) said the driver was under debt.

He had sold 186 bags to Ramesh, Rajbir and Ramesh of Hajwana village and dumped 200 bags at his house.

The driver had already been booked and arrested in a murder case at Narwana, three cases of extortion at Pundri and one case of looting at Barwala, the SP added.