Loss blamed on
red tape
HISAR, Oct 30 — The claims of the Haryana Government about making the state flood free, notwithstanding, it has been the bureaucratic red tape that caught the government unawares, resulting in huge loss to paddy and cotton crops due to unseasonal rain and the subsequent floods.

Haryana millers may not buy paddy
CHANDIGARH, Oct 29 — Irked by what they call discriminatory attitude of the Union Food Ministry towards them, Haryana rice millers are planning to boycott the purchase of paddy in the state.

Loss blamed on red tape
From Vimal Sumbly
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Oct 30 — The claims of the Haryana Government about making the state flood free, notwithstanding, it has been the bureaucratic red tape that caught the government unawares, resulting in huge loss to paddy and cotton crops due to unseasonal rain and the subsequent floods.

According to figures available from sources in the Irrigation Department here, of about Rs 4.5 crore allocated for taking preventive measures for floods, only Rs 15 lakh were spent. The sources pointed out that the officials responsible for implementing these schemes never took them seriously.

The sources said, Chief Minister Bansi Lal had taken serious notice of the delay in implementing the scheme, in May, while chairing the meeting of the grievances redressal committee here. The engineers entrusted with the job had assured him that the work would be finished by September, However, till September 30 only Rs 30 lakh had been spent.

According to the scheme developed by the Haryana State Flood Control Board Rs 4.34 crore were allocated to various villages of Hisar district with the recurring problem of floods. Of this amount Rs 65 lakh were allocated to Bass Kharbala drain, Rs 12 lakh for Saninipura drain, about Rs 8 lakh for Mahla ditch drain and about 3 crore for Pethwad, Ughalan and Bakhala drain. But only Rs 15 lakh could be spent. The sources pointed out, that most of the money was spent in official formalities.

Similarly the Flood Control Board approved about Rs 30 crore for various schemes for preventing floods. But only Rs 75 lakh were provided. Of this Rs 40 lakh were allocated for the purchase of pumps and Rs 35 lakh for other miscellaneous works.

The sources said, the financial control rests with the Deputy Commissioner. Even for providing free diesel to farmers for draining out the flood waters and digging out drains the permission has to be sought from the Deputy Commissioner’s office. The Irrigation and Flood Control Department does not have money to pay the contractors and labourers who dig the drains.

The scheme for controlling floods in Haryana was formulated on January 31, 1997, by the Flood Control Board at a meeting held under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister. However, even after the passage of about two years, the scheme continues to remain confined to the official files.

Meanwhile, the central team which visited the flood affected areas in the past three days is expected to submit its report in the next few days. The eight-member team comprised representatives from various ministries.

Haryana millers may not buy paddy
By Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 29 — Irked by what they call discriminatory attitude of the Union Food Ministry towards them, Haryana rice millers are planning to boycott the purchase of paddy in the state.

The President of the Haryana Rice Millers and Dealers Association, Mr Dharam Pal Gupta, has convened a meeting of the general body of the association in Karnal on November 8 to discuss the problems being faced by the millers on account of the large scale arrival of damaged paddy in the mandis and the failure of the Food Corporation of India to relax specifications of levy rice.

Mr Gupta told TNS on the phone that while the Union Food Ministry headed by Mr Surjit Singh Barnala of the Akali Dal was quick in communicating to the Punjab Government the relaxation in the specification of paddy to be procured by the state agencies, it had not conveyed a similar message to the Haryana authorities.

Moreover, only the specifications of paddy had been relaxed which means that the government was conscious of the damage caused to the crop by rain. Mr Gupta says should one believe that officials of the Food Ministry are so naive that they do not know that from damaged paddy, only damaged rice can be produced.

He says if the government had accepted the demand of the millers to relax specifications of the levy rice also along with that of the paddy, it would have helped the farmers in real sense. Accusing the government of being anti-millers, he said its decision of not imposing levy on rice up to October 31 had benefited big exporters only who were holding the millers to ransom now. Even this decision, he said, had not been conveyed to Haryana as a result of which the millers in the state were confused.

The Haryana millers do not know if they would be required to give levy rice to the FCI out of the paddy they purchased after October 6 or they would be exempt from levy.

Mr Gupta said to save the millers from the monopoly of the exporters, the FCI must make levy optional instead of exempting it in total. It should also relax specifications of rice at least up to the level of last year which were 30 per cent broken (against 22 per cent as at present), 6 per cent damaged (2 per cent), 13 per cent discolouring (5 per cent) and polich 14 per cent (12 per cent). He justified his demand on the ground that this year the paddy crop had been damaged in the fields itself.

He met the Central team currently on tour of Haryana yesterday and showed them how farmers had to sit on cots while harvesting paddy which was still under water.

The millers had slowed down their purchase of paddy in the past two days at a number of places in Haryana in view of the shortage of cash with them and because of uncertainty about the FCI policies. However, they were "pursuaded" by the district administration to purchase paddy in full swing when the farmers blocked roads at several places. The administration assured the millers that the State Government would convince the FCI to relax specifications of rice.

According to Mr N.C. Jain, Senior Vice-President of the Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the exporters had withheld the payments of the millers after the FCI exempted the rice from levy. If this position continued, the millers would be left with no money to pay the farmers for their produce which would lead to another crisis. He says the Union Food Ministry should not adopt double standards while dealing with the similarly placed millers and farmers of Punjab and Haryana.

The President of the Haryana Yuva Baopari Sanghathan, Mr Jai Bhagwan Singla, said because of the wrong policies of the FCI the millers in Punjab had stopped purchasing paddy and were primarily engaged in customary milling. This had resulted in an indirect loss to the farmers of that State. They have to sell major portion of their produce to the State agencies at the support price.

In contrast, the Haryana millers purchase paddy at prices higher than the support price. But if the FCI, Mr Singla said, continued with its wrong policies, the Haryana millers too would be forced to undertake customary milling.

3 held for kidnapping minister’s kin
Tribune News Service

ROHTAK, Oct 30 — The police today claimed to have arrested the alleged kidnappers of Madhur, a grandson of Urban Development Minister, Mr Siri Kishan Dass.

Madhur, an MBA student at M.D. University here, was kidnapped at gunpoint on September 16 in his Maruti car from near the Sheila bypass on the national highway. The kidnappers, it was alleged, had blindfolded Madhur, tied his legs and hands with a rope and thrown him in fields near Madina village. They had taken his car, Rs 1500 in cash, wrist watch, gold chain and bracelet.

The police chief, Mr P.K. Aggarwal, told TNS that the wrist watch and the bracelet had been recovered from the alleged kidnappers. He said the miscreants warned to rob Madhur and not kidnap him. These people were not aware of his identity, he said.

Mr Aggarwal said Madhur was kidnapped by three persons — Satish alias Babla, a resident of Fatehpur (Sonepat), Rajinder, son of Daya Nand, a resident of Baroili (Sonepat) and Rajinder, son of Jamsher, a resident of Kumbha Thurna (Hisar). He said Rajinder son of Jamsher and Sanjay, a resident of Hisar, with whom they stayed after committing the crime, had been arrested. Rajinder, son of Daya Nand was arrested by the Sonepat police on charges of murder and was already in jail.

Mr Aggarwal said the bracelet had been recovered from Sanjay and wrist-watch from Rajinder, son of Jamsher. The Maruti car of Madhur was with Satish, who had absconded. He said police parties had been sent to raid the possible hideouts of the absconding criminal.

The police chief said Rajinder, son of Daya Nand was involved in the murder of a family at Sonepat.

The kidnapping of Madhur took place on September 16 and the alleged murderer was actively involved in it. He and his namesake from Kumbha Thurna village had taken away Madhur's Maruti car at a gunpoint and after throwing him in the field on a link road near Madina, and escaped with the stolen vehicle.

Rajinder, son of Daya Nand, Mr Aggarwal said, was arrested by the Sonepat police on September 30 and was sent to judicial custody. A police source, he disclosed, informed the Rohtak police about his involvement in the kidnapping of Madhur. He was taken on production warrant by the Rohtak police and his interrogation solved the mystery shrouding the kidnapping of the minister's grandson, Mr Aggarwal said.

BJP backing hoarders: INLD
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Oct 30 — In a significant development of far-reaching consequences, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), accused the BJP of being in league with the hoarders, blackmarketeers, commission agents and corrupt bureaucrats and blamed it for being responsible for the present price rise of essential commodities.

Senior leader of the party and former minister Prof Sampat Singh told a press conference here today, that his party could also think of withdrawing the support if the BJP failed to mend its ways. When asked, whether these were his personal views or that of the party, he clarified that he represented his party and spoke on the party lines.

However, he sought to clarify that the withdrawal of support was no solution. Moreover, the party had authorised the party president to take any decision regarding the continuation of its support to the Vajpayee led government at the Centre.

The INLD leader pointed out that the government had failed to check the price rise. He said, while the Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee was claiming to come down heavily on the hoarders, he had done nothing in this regard.

He demanded a high-level inquiry into, what he called, "the onion scandal", in which country’s population was looted of about Rs 9,000 crore by the hoarders and blackmarketeers. He said, the onion crisis was artificially created by a business cartel and in case the government did not act against it, it would be presumed that government was in league.

The Jat leader also criticised the Union Government for having "absolutely no agriculture policy". He observed, "it appears that the government has no agriculture policy, thus leading to decline in the agricultural production". The INLD leader claimed that the BJP led government had surrendered before the multinational companies, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Even these international organisations influenced the country’s budget.

He said, the MNCs, the IMF and the World Bank were dictating terms to wipe out the domestic small and medium-scale industry. He expressed surprise, over the BJP’s volte face on the economic policies. He said, a party that was claiming itself to be the sole advocate of Swadeshi had perhaps forgotten the idea itself.

Although he refused to speak anything about the party’s strategy in the assembly poll for Rajasthan and Delhi, it became obvious that the party had started to put pressure on the BJP to get maximum share in these two states. He said, although the party had left the decision on poll alliance to the party president, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, a final decision would be taken after due consultations among various leaders in a few days.

Visit of central team ‘stage managed’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 30 — The Haryana Krishak Samaj has described the visit of a central team to Haryana to assess the damage to the crops by the recent rains in the State as a "stage managed affair".

In a statement issued here today, the President of the Samaj, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala, said the visit was without any "substance" because the team's tour programme had not been notified in advance to farmers and the team could hardly see any areas under water because its stay of two or three days was insufficient.

He said the utter apathy and callousness of the HVP-BJP Government toward the acute difficulties being faced by the farmers following flood of the mature paddy and other crops had "now become proverbial". The presence of the government machinery to provide any kind of relief was unnoticeable. There were no pumps for dewatering and the farmers and other villagers had been left to their fate. Both human beings and cattle were suffering from various diseases in the absence of any organised efforts by the government as the drinking water in the villages had been polluted.

Mr Surjewala remarked that after a lapse of over one month the State Government was now talking about the special girdawri. Whatever crop was left was very difficult to salvage on account of flooding of the fields and whatever was retrieved was difficult to sell because of lack of buyers in the market. He alleged that the government agencies, including the FCI, were not purchasing paddy, leaving the farmers to resort to distress sale. The plight of the landless agricultural workers and the rural poor was worse as they had nothing to fall back upon for their survival.

Mr Surjewala said the Samaj would hold a torch-light protest demonstration at Hisar on November 9 to highlight the plight of the farmers and the rural poor.

Work on new bridge taken up
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 30 — The Haryana Government has taken up the work of construction of a new bridge parallel to the existing one at Jhajjra on National Highway No 22 which is likely to be completed by September next. The cost of this bridge will be Rs 2.75 crore.

A spokesman of the Public Works Department today said the traffic on National Highway No 22 had increased manifold and the Ministry of Surface Transport was planning four-laning of this National Highway from Ambala to Kalka in the first phase. He said that this National Highway was linked with the rest of the country through Jhajjra bridge situated 53.2 km away from Ambala. The approach roads connecting the bridge on both sides would be constructed with an additional amount of Rs 156.66 lakh. Work on construction of this bridge started immediately after being allotted in March last.

He said a part of the existing Jhajjra bridge had nearly been washed away in 1988. At this time, traffic had to be restored with the help of Army authorities.

He further said that the congestion in Kalka town was likely to be reduced by providing an alternative by-pass both for Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Preliminary study for fixing the alignment has already been conducted which was under examination and a final proposal would be approved shortly by the Haryana Government in consultation with Himachal Pradesh Government. This by-pass will have 5.61 km in Haryana and 8.73 kms in Himachal Pradesh.

Staff union flays Bansi government
From Our Correspondent

KAITHAL, Oct 30 — The president of the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh, Mr S D Kapoor, expressed strong resentment over the anti-employee policies of the Bansi Lal government. In a signed statement issued here today, Mr Kapoor alleged that the government had taken repressive measures to crush the peaceful agitation of the employees. He said the employees would not bow before these tactics and the union would organise a massive rally at Delhi on November 15. Around one lakh employees are likely to participate.

He debunked the state government’s claim that it had implemented the recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission on the Central Government pattern saying that the recommendations had been only partially implemented. The government had not paid bonus for 96-97 and 97-98 to employees of Haryana Roadways, erstwhile HSEB staff and staff of government owned corporations.

He also criticised the dismissal of employee leader Dhara Singh, Amrik Singh and B D Kaushik, on flimsy grounds.

Eradicate poverty, says Governor
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Oct 30 — The Haryana Governor, Mr Mahabir Prasad, has appealed to the people to join hands with the State Government to eradicate corruption, poverty, illiteracy, casteism and terrorism.

On the occasion of Haryana Day, the Governor also appealed to the people to maintain peace, unity and communal harmony.

He said the State Government had remodelled many development and welfare schemes so that their benefits might percolate to the needy persons. Top priority had been accorded to implement these schemes more effectively in some thrust areas, including irrigation, power, agriculture, horticulture, industry, development of roads, transport, education and modern health services.

The Government had not only assured the people of social justice, equality and an accelerated pace of socio-economic development but also improvement in the quality of life as well as affording equal opportunity for progress to the people especially belonging to the weaker sections of society.

The State Government had speeded up the generation of electricity, availability as well as distribution of power by taking up many revolutionary measures so as to ensure 24-hour power supply to the people in the State. The Government had given top priority to the irrigation sector so as to ensure water at the tailends, he added.

Inter-village dispute resolved
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, Oct 30 — The Meham Chaubisi panchayat today resolved the dispute between Madina and Girawar villages of the region over dewatering arrangements. The residents of Madina have reportedly given their consent for the digging of a fresh nullah along the controversial bandh between Madina and Girawar with a view to discharging flood-water from Girawar.

The panchayat held at the historical Chabutara of Chaubisi constituted a 31-member committee which will meet the Deputy Commissioner tomorrow and demand expediting of dewatering operations by digging a nullah and installing additional pumps. Besides, the committee would sought draining off the water from all over the Chaubisi region, immediate replacement of the burnt transformers and an adequate compensation for affected farmers.

The panchayat presided by Mr Randhir Singh of Meham Tapa decided that villagers of the Chaubisi would gherao the Deputy Commissioner at his residence on November 9 if their demands were not accepted by then.

International meet on food security
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Oct 30 — A four-day international conference on food security will be organised at the CCS Haryana Agricultural University here from November 3 to 6.

Disclosing this here yesterday the executive chairman of the conference, Dr S.R. Poonia, said a number of scientists from India and abroad were expected to attend the conference.

He said the conference assumed added significance as the rapidly increasing population across the world was posing important questions regarding food security. He said India was also to think seriously over the issue as country's population was fast approaching the billion mark.

He revealed that besides population explosion, issues like limited and depleting land and water resources, increasing biotic and abiotic stress and low investment in agricultural sector had further intensified the challenges for the agricultural scientists.

Ministry to assess damage to cotton
Tribune News Service

HISAR, Oct 30 — A high-level team of the Textile Ministry, led by the Secretary, Ministry of Textiles will visit Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad and Rohtak on November 7 and 8.

The team is expected to assess the damage caused to the cotton crop in this area and its effect on cotton and textile mills.

The area is considered important from the point of view of cotton production. However, during the past few years, because of the American heliothis virus in cotton and the problem of floods and water-logging, cotton production has come down sharply.

The team will meet representatives of cotton growers and textile and cotton mills, besides visiting fields.