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| Wednesday, April 19, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Rs
250 lakh in power arrears recovered 4.10 lakh metric tonnes of wheat
bought HUDA lifts ban on plots purchase ‘Chautala victimising
opponents’ ‘Operation IT Brains’
launched HDDCF first to own website |
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PDS atta: poor feel
cheated Haryana transfers Census begins in Kaithal 3 held for gang-rape MDU announces datesheets
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Rs 250 lakh in power
arrears recovered CHANDIGARH, April 18 — The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) has recovered arrears of electricity bills amounting to Rs 250 lakh in a special campaign launched to recover defaulting amount from the domestic and agriculture consumers in rural as well as urban areas of the state. A spokesman of the Nigam said Hisar circle was ahead of all the six operation circles by recovering an amount of Rs 118 lakh followed by Sirsa and Bhiwani, which had recovered Rs 48 lakh and Rs 46 lakh, respectively. The campaign is also picking up in Faridabad, Narnaul and Mahendragarh circles. The spokesman said the main attraction for rural consumers was the surcharge waiving scheme announced by Deputy Commissioner during visits to villages. Under the scheme, 100 per cent surcharge was being waived for those consumers who deposit their capital amount of arrears in one go up to April 30. Provision of instalments was also available for consumers who were unable to pay in one go. Rural domestic and agricultural consumers can deposit their arrears in three instalments by paying 50 per cent in first instalment, 30 per cent in the second and 20 per cent in the third instalment. The gap between the instalments would be two months for domestic consumers and one month for agricultural consumers. Fifty per cent of the surcharge was being waived for such consumers as well. He said the campaign was
evoking a good response in rural areas also and the
consumers were expressing their willingness to pay the
arrears before Deputy Commissioners and Superintending
Engineers. The campaign was likely to gain further
momentum with the ripening of rabi crop, he said. |
4.10 lakh metric tonnes of
wheat bought CHANDIGARH, April 18 — The Haryana Food and Supplies Department and other wheat procuring agencies, namely Hafed, Haryana Warehousing Corporation, Haryana Agro-Industries Corporation, Confed and Food Corporation of India, have purchased nearly 4.10 lakh metric tonnes of wheat as against the total arrival of 4.33 lakh metric tonnes till yesterday. Stating this here today, a spokesman of the department said the agencies had been directed to ensure that mandies were cleared on day-to-day basis. He said the FCI had also been asked to ensure that maximum local deliveries of wheat were taken by them at their FSD points. He said the agencies had
also been directed to make payment to the farmers within
48 to 72 hours. This year wheat arrival had been slightly
late owing to the late harvesting of the crop. This year
360 purchase centres had been set up to facilitate the
sale of wheat by the farmers as against 339 centres set
up in the previous year, he added. |
HUDA lifts ban on plots
purchase CHANDIGARH, April 18 — The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has decided to lift the ban imposed earlier for the purchase of more than one plot in an urban estate. Stating this here today, the Town and Country Planning Minister Mr Dhirpal Singh pointed out that earlier an applicant was required to furnish an affidavit that he or she had not possessed any plot in his or her, spouses name or in the name of his or her dependent children in that particular urban estate. He said now owing to change in the scenario and availability of plots, HUDA had decided to remove this condition for general category applicants. However, this condition would remain unchanged for all reserved categories, including economically weaker sections plots. The Minister said HUDA had also modified the policy regarding allotment of residential and commercial sites to the oustees in its various urban estates. He said on September 10, 1987, HUDA had formulated a policy for allotment of residential and commercial sites to the land owners whose land had been acquired for the development of an urban estate prior to September 10, 1987 were kept out of preview of this policy. Now this policy had been modified and if the land was acquired even prior to September 10, 1987, and plots were still available, than while floating the available plots carved on such land, the oustees claims would also he invited and they would have the prior right for the allotment of plots, he added. He said the authority had also modified its transfer policy of residential and commercial plots with effect from March 8. As per old policy for transfer of residential or commercial plots, a maximum four transfers were allowed and out of these two were allowed even after full payment had been made without insisting on the execution of conveyance or sale deed. Now, transfer of residential or commercial plots, wherein either full payment had already been made or laid down schedule of payment of instalments was over, whichever was earlier, would be allowed only through execution of conveyance or sale deed. However, in other cases wherein full payment of the plot had not so far been made and schedule of payment of instalments was not yet over, a maximum four transfers would be allowed before final payment, on payment of prescribed transfer fee. The minister said for this purpose, the state had been divided into three zones. Panchkula, Gurgaon and Faridabad would be in high potential zone, Panipat, Karnal and Kurukshetra in medium potential zone while rest of the urban estates would be covered under the low potential zone. The transfer fee for first and second transfer would be Rs 75, Rs 60 and Rs 40 per sq. mtr. in high potential zone, medium potential zone and low potential zone, respectively. It would be Rs 100, Rs 75 and Rs 50 per sq. mtr. for third and fourth transfer. In respect of commercial sites, the rates of transfer fee would be three times the corresponding rates applicable to the residential plots. However, transfer of ownership of plot, within the family or through execution of conveyance or sale deed, would be allowed only on payment of administrative charges of Rs 5,000 and no transfer fee would be charged. The Minister said HUDA had also made a modification in the policy regarding allotment of petrol pump site. He said that it had been decided that the available petrol pump sites would be floated for sale or lease in favour of the nationalised oil companies, government departments, state government undertaking once in a year. In the cases where more than one application had been received against the specific site, the allotment would be made by holding draw of lots. While making the recommendations for allotment, it had further been decided that preference would be given to the cases wherein an oil company proposes to allot the site to a war widow in Vijay Operation (Kargil). He said HUDA in the past had been making allotment of petrol pump sites in favour of nationalised oil companies for its further allotment to its authorised dealer or letter of intent holder. To provide relief to the house owners for minor violations during construction of their houses, he said HUDA had fixed uniform compounding rates. The main objective behind compounding of violations up to certain limits was that the allottees were harassed for unintentional minor violations committed during the construction and further to make the public aware of the penalties to be imposed if they violate the bye-laws. However, this policy did not permit violations of the bye-laws, he added. The Minister said these
compounding rates would be the floor rates and the zonal
administrators would be empowered to charge compounding
at higher rates over and above in fixed rate. The basic
compounding rates fixed by HUDA would be applicable as
such in the high potential zone. In the medium potential
zone, these rates would be lowered by 25 per cent and in
the rest of the urban estates constituting the lower
potential zone, these rates would be further lowered by
50 per cent. |
‘Chautala victimising
opponents’ CHANDIGARH, April 18 — The Haryana Congress has warned that it will not be a silent spectator if the state government continued with its revengeful policy and implicated Congressmen in false cases. In a resolution adopted by the general body of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), which met here today, the party strongly condemned the government’s policy of vindictiveness and fabrication of false cases against its political opponents. The resolution said it was the firm view of the Congress that in democracy the party in power and the party in opposition differed on policies. The Chautala government, however, was setting wrong precedents by victimising its opponents. Through another resolution the party criticised the move to review the Constitution. The general body meeting, which was presided over by the party chief, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, said while it was logical to amend any provision of the Constitution as per the needs of the time, the proposal to change the fundamental provisions was fraught with danger. The Congress warned the Central Government that it would make all sacrifices to protect the basic structure of the Constitution. It also criticised the NDA government for increasing the rates of PDS items, urea, kerosene and LPG. It said despite opposition by certain constituents of the NDA, the BJP was adamant to implement the new rates which were anti-poor. The PCC appealed to the Congressmen to organise protest meetings, processions and demonstrations at block and district levels and submit memorandums to the authorities against the increase in the prices of these items. Expressing concern over the deteriorating law and order situation in Haryana, the party said due to the failure of the law and order machinery, citizens in the state were not feeling secure. The meeting also expressed full faith in Mrs Sonia Gandhi and assured her of full participation in any struggle launched by her to protect the interests of the poor. Among those who attended
the meeting were Mr Moti Lal Vora and Mr S. Narayanswami,
AICC General Secretary and Secretary, respectively and
the leader of the CLP, Mr Bhajan Lal. |
‘Operation IT Brains’ launched CHANDIGARH, April 18 — As part of its Information Technology (IT) initiatives, the Haryana Government has launched a comprehensive training programme named "Operation IT Brains" for state government officials through Hartron. The programme was inaugurated by Mr P.K. Chaudhery, Commissioner and Secretary, Electronics and IT Department at Hartron corporate office, here today. Mr Chaudhery said the Haryana Government had decided to extensively use IT in government functioning. He said 14 officers,
including Financial Commissioners and Commissioners and
Secretaries of various departments, had been enrolled for
the first batch. Hartron planned to start such courses at
Haryana Secretariat as well as at many places in the
state impart computer training to all Haryana Government
employees and employees of boards and corporations in
three years’ time. |
HDDCF first to own website CHANDIGARH, April 18 — The Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation (HDDCF) has become the first cooperative federation of the Cooperation Department to have its own website, www.vitaindia.com, which was launched by Mr L.M. Goyal, Financial Commissioner, Cooperation, here today. The opening page of the website shows the maps of India and Haryana with a moving strip declaring "Desan Mein Des Haryana Jit Dudh Dahi Ka Khan" (Haryana is the region where milk is an important constituent of daily fare. One can browse through pages of the website and have a glimpse of various activities undertaken by the federation. One can have information regarding the federations milk plants, milk unions and milk cooperative societies at the village level. Information regarding milk products like flavoured milk, liquid milk, ghee, butter, paneer, milk powder etc with proper chemical data is also available. National and international buyers of milk products can order and buy milk products through online purchase. The HDDCF has also
launched a computer training programme of its officers
and officials. |
PDS atta: poor feel cheated HISAR, April 18 — Families living below the poverty line (BPL) and holding yellow ration cards will have to pay Rs 6 per kilo for the atta sold to them at subsidised rates through the public distribution system (PDS) whereas freshly harvested wheat is available in the open market at Rs 5.80 per kilo. The Centre had raised the issue price of wheat for BPL families to Rs 450 per quintal this year i.e. half of the support price of wheat pegged at Rs 900 per quintal. The handling charges for wheat were fixed at Rs 32 per quintal. The wheat was thus supposed to be sold at Rs 482 per quintal to the BPL families. Although the Centre’s notification in this regard mentions the world "distribution of wheat", last year the then Haryana Government decided to distribute atta instead of wheat in bags of 20 kg each. This year too, Confed, which handles the wheat procured from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) on behalf of the state government plans to distribute atta instead of wheat. The rate for this atta has been fixed at Rs 6 per kg. Accordingly, depot holders have been asked to deposit money in advance for the stocks they are supposed to lift for the current month. In most cases, they have done so, it is learnt. Each BPL family is entitled to get 20 kg of atta per month. There are an estimated six lakh such families in the state. Till last year, the average price of atta sold through PDS was around Rs 70 per 20 kg bag. However, with the hike in rates of wheat supplied through the PDS this year, the price has gone up to Rs 120 per bag. Because of a bumper wheat crop this year, freshly harvested wheat is currently available in the open market at Rs 580 a quintal. BPL families are feeling cheated because the atta they will get has been prepared from last year’s wheat stocked in FCI godowns. Besides, last year’s stocks in the open market are selling at a lower rate than that of the new wheat. Members of BPL families interviewed by The Tribune said at prevalent rates, atta from fresh wheat would cost them only nominally more than the PDS atta. They also complained that atta sold to them last year was of poor quality as the flour millers had quoted ridiculously low rates for grounding PDS wheat. They are learnt to have earned profits through adulteration of recycled atta and extraction of maida and suji from the PDS wheat making it devoid of essential nutrients. On the other hand, depot holders fear that the BPL families will not lift the atta in which case they will incur heavy losses since the shelf life of atta was limited as compared to wheat. Alarmed at the situation, the authorities in Hisar and Narnaul districts are learnt to be contemplating selling wheat instead of atta to BPL families. The tentative rate has been fixed at Rs 5 per kg. However, BPL families feel that even at this rate, they are being overcharged. Official sources here said they would prefer to follow the central notification in letter and spirit and distribute wheat instead of atta. Wheat will cost the BPL families cheaper by 80 paise a kg compared to the current open market price for fresh wheat. They agreed with BPL families that the distribution of wheat would eliminate chance of adulteration and maida and suji extraction by the flour millers. They said on the condition of anonymity that they had checked the grounding facilities at the premises of many of those who had put in bids for grounding wheat and were surprised that many of them had no chakkis at all. On being quizzed by the authorities they are reported to have explained that they planned to get the job executed by the flour mills. The sources said this alarmed them since the extraction of maida and suji during grounding was possible only in flour mills and not at ordinary chakkis. Meanwhile, complaints of inclusion of better off families in the BPL category and those of non-inclusion of eligible ones continue to dog officials. In Hisar, another survey to identify families of both these categories is already on. So far, a total of 540404 BPL families had been identified. However, only 41018 such
families had been issued yellow cards. Officials said the
rest were either bogus claims or those who had misplaced
their forms. These families, they said, had not turned up
to complete the formalities. The fresh survey, they hope,
will eliminate all such complaints. |
Haryana transfers CHANDIGARH, April 18 — In an administrative reshuffle, the Haryana Government today ordered the postings and transfers of four IPS officers in the state. Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Railways) Parminder Rai has been appointed DIG (Administration) in addition to his present duties. Mr R.C. Misra, awaiting posting, goes as Deputy Director, Police Training College, Madhuban, in place of Mr Ved Prakash whose posting orders will be issued later. Mr Sohan Lal, awaiting
posting, has been appointed AIG, Telecommunication and
Training, against a vacant post. Mr Raghbir Singh,
awaiting posting, goes as Superintendent of Police
(Commando), Karnal, against a vacant post. |
Census begins in Kaithal KAITHAL, April 18 — The census has started in a big way in the district. Dr Mahavir Singh, Deputy Commissioner-cum-Principal Census Officer told mediapersons that census work had started from today. Houselisting operations will commence from May 15. About 1482 enumerators and 300 supervisors will conduct the census. Primary workers, enumerators and supervisors have begun training from April 17. Through the prescribed questionnaire enumerators will seek information on housing, material used, access to telephone, electricity, safe drinking water etc. Information gathered
during the census will be kept confidential. |
3 held for gang-rape SIRSA, April 18 — The district police arrested three persons in a rape case. According to a police
press release today a case was filed by a woman of Makhu
Sarani village in the district accusing three persons
Rohtash, Jagdish and Ran Singh of gang raping her after
abducting her on the night of April 14. The police
arrested the three after getting the woman examined. |
MDU announces datesheets ROHTAK, April 18 — Maharshi Dayanand University has announced datesheets for MA, M.Com. and M.Sc annual examinations. The examinations will
commence from May 1 and continue till May 31. The
examinations for MA, M.Sc. and M.Com. (previous) classes
will be held from 9 a.m. to 12 noon, while those MA,
M.Sc. and M.Com. (final year) classes will be held from 2
p.m. to 5 p.m. |
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