Chandigarh, January 7
The Haryana Government has exempted various categories of items from the levy of VAT with effect from January 1, 2006. The items include supplements, concentrates and additives to aquatic feed, cattle feed, poultry feed, deoiled cakes and deoiled rice bran.

Other items, which have been exempted from VAT, are tyres, tubes and flaps of animal-drawn vehicles, certified seeds and mithai and namkeen prepared with traditional tools of halwai trade.

This was disclosed by Mr Venod Kumar Sharma, Excise and Taxation Minister, Haryana, while talking to mediapersons after presiding over the 2nd meeting of the state-level Consultative Committee. The committee has been constituted by the government to redress the grievances of trade and industry.

Mr Sharma added that the government had also decided to reduce VAT from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent on 15 categories of items with effect from January 1, 2006.

The items are syringes, dressings, medical equipments, devices and implants, tyres, tubes and flaps of agricultural tractors, henna, mithai and namkeen prepared in mechanised factories, khoya, nuts, bolts, screws and fasteners, processed or preserved fruits and vegetables, including jam, jelly, pickle, squash, juice, drink, and paste and powder made of fruits or vegetables.

He said VAT had been also reduced to 4 per cent on spectacles and its parts and components, contact lens and lens cleaner, zinc oxide, zinc peroxide, hydrogen peroxide, acyclic alcohols and four types of derivatives, buffing goods, polishing materials and rubber rolls and polishers.

Mr Sharma said steps to minimise physical interface between the department and the dealers had been taken to prevent corruption in the department. He said with this in view, 87,329 cases of sales tax out of 1,10,594 cases for the year 2003-04 was deemed assessed without calling the dealers to offices.

He said in order to monitor the implementation of government decisions and redress grievances of the dealers, Joint Excise and Taxation Commissioners would regularly hold “Amne Samne”(face-to-face) meetings in every district after every three months.

He said the limit for use of single VAT D-3/ST-38 form for movement of goods had been increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25,000 both for inward and outward movement with effect from November 1, 2005.

In reply to a question, the minister said with the abolition of central sales tax (CST), Haryana would suffer a loss of Rs 1,800 crore annually, which would hamper the development works in the state. He said the Union Government was being approached by all states affected by the proposed abolition to either compensate the loss in cash or suggest other alternate measures.

In reply to another question, the minister said the government was concerned about reports that the benefit in the reduction of taxes was not reaching the consumers.

He said the excise duty earned from liquor trade this year was more than the total of six years of excise earned by the previous government. He said revenue from excise was expected to go up to Rs 7,000 crore this year.

Sirsa, January 7
As many as 2,800 new buses will be included in the Haryana Roadways fleet over the next four years. As of now, it has 3,500 buses, of which 700 have been purchased during the current financial year.

This was stated by the Haryana Transport Minister, Mr Randeep Surjewala, while addressing a press conference here yesterday. The state Industries Minister, Mr Lachhman Dass Arora, was also present on the occasion.

Mr Surjewala said in future, buses of three categories, including ordinary, deluxe and luxury, would be plied by the state Roadways Department. He maintained that six Volvo buses were being run with the support of private companies, adding that most of these were running in profit.

The Transport Minister said in near future, Volvo buses would be run on all national highways passing through the state. Volvo buses would soon start plying on the Sirsa-Delhi and Sirsa-Chandigarh routes, he added.

“No buses more than seven years old will be kept in the Roadways fleet and the old buses presently being used will be replaced soon,” said the Congress leader.

Regarding the fate of Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, the minister asserted that it would not be closed down. “On the contrary, the state government plans to develop it as an agro-based university,” he stated.

In response to a specific question on his alleged involvement in the Iraq oil-for-food scam, Mr Surjewala categorically stated that he had not sent any representative to Iraq during his tenure as the Youth Congress chief. He alleged that his name was being dragged into this matter by the INLD due to its fear of CBI probe.

Earlier, addressing a rally, Mr Arora assured the local residents that the state government was committed to the all-round development of the district.

Rohtak, January 7
Maharshi Dayanand University’s Faculty House has gained the dubious distinction of being the city’s cheapest banquet hall with varsity employees booking it in their names for private functions hosted by outsiders at highly subsidised rates.

As per the MDU calendar, the Faculty House’s dining hall can be rented to university employees strictly for marriage of self/children for Rs 2,000 per day. The charges for use by dependants are Rs 5000, though the calendar does not define who these dependants are.

The rules state that the lounge/lawns can be allowed to be used only in exceptional cases by the Registrar/Vice-Chancellor for Rs 2,000 plus electricity charges for the employees. However, the charges for this facility are double in case of use by others. Again the calendar does not define “others”.

The employees have lately been booking only the dining hall, purportedly for their personal use for Rs 2,000, but actually the function is hosted by a relative or a friend. The lawns and the lounge are used unofficially without paying the rental.

That is not all. The university does not permit outside caterers. The meals are supposed to be cooked by the staff employed by the university and the rates are specified by the university from time to time. Outside catering is allowed only in exceptional cases but for that one has to pay 15 per cent of the amount charged by the caterer to the university.

However, in practice, most of the catering is done by outsiders causing financial loss to the university while still using all its facilities.

Any outsider using the facilities ends up paying just Rs 2,000 to the university for the facilities. Similar facilities in leading banquet in the city vary from Rs 25,000 to Rs 55,000 a day depending on the location and size of the banquet hall.

Last month, a Professor and a Deputy Registrar are alleged to have hired the premises in their names for use by outsiders. A local resident has even sent a written complaint to the Chancellor in this regard.

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr R.S. Dhanker, said he had received complaints in this regard. He admitted that there were loopholes in the system of booking and these would be plugged.

Seenk (Panipat), January 7
A verbal duel between the Congress MLA and former Speaker marred the abhinandan rally organised in the honour of Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Seenk village, about 40 km from Panipat.

Villagers faced the wrath of the police and Congress workers who did not allow them to leave the spot. Irritated by the delayed arrival of Mr Hooda for more than four hours, villagers particularly the womenfolk, started leaving the function. But much to their inconvenience, they were forced to sit to listen to the politicians.

At the function ogranised by the Naulatha MLA, Ms Prasanni Devi, at her native village, the former Speaker, Dr Karan Singh Kadyan, talked about the problems being faced by villagers in the Naulatha Assembly constituency.

Before the arrival of Mr Hooda, Dr Kadyan’s speech caused much embarrassment to the present Congressmen. In a bitter attack on Ms Prasanni Devi, the former Speaker said instead of organising crowd pulling rallies, there was a need to redress the grievances of the villagers.

He said during his visit to the village last week along with the Karnal MP, Dr Arvind Sharma, villagers had complained of frequent corruption prevalent in various departments. He said villagers had complained that transformers in their respective villages had not been changed, as the officials were demanding bribe to get them installed.

Agitated over the comments, the host MLA interrupted Dr Kadyan, “snatched” the microphone and claimed that his charges were baseless and work was going on in a normal manner.

Today the foundation stone of a minor to be constructed at a cost of 1.2 crore, was laid. Addressing the rally, Mr Hooda said the Chautala regime was worse than the British rule. He said he would provide employment opportunities to more than 10 lakh youth of the state. He also announced that a sugar mill would be commissioned at Assandh.

Ms Prasanni Devi offered a plot near Seenk village for the proposed women university and urged him to end the problems related to roads, schools and health.

Ambala, January 7
Former Ambala MP Ratan Lal Kataria today demanded a judicial inquiry into the rowdyism involving aspirants for the Territorial Army in Ambala Cantonment.

He said the Territorial Army aspirants misbehaved with college and school girls. “They indulged in eve-teasing,” he said.

He said Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had declared this year as the year for the girl child. “Yet in the beginning of the year, such an unfortunate incident has taken place in Ambala. In Gurgaon, a physically challenged girl was raped. Rape incidents have taken place in Fatehabad and Gohana also,” he said.

Mr Kataria said the rape incident inside a moving vehicle in Haryana seems to be a copy of similar incidents that took place in Delhi and Mumbai. “I demand that Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda must step down,” he said.

To a query, he said CPM leader Brinda Karat had hurt the sentiments of the people by unnecessarily criticising yoga guru Ramdev. He said Ramdev had created awareness about yoga and a large number of people had benefited from his medicines. “His has led to MNCs facing problems,” he said.

He said the Uttaranchal Government had checked the medicines and these had been found to be in order. “As a matter of fact, proper procedure had not been adopted by Brinda Karat for collecting medicine samples that were tested,” he said.

He said ever since the Congress-led UPA government had come to power, the prices of essential commodities had been steadily increasing.

Mr Kataria said that there should be a CBI enquiry into the letter in which Mr Jagat Singh had stated that it was issued by Haryana Transport Minister Randeep Surjewala.

Ambala, January 7
A safe containing Rs 3 lakh was stolen from the SDO office in Kesari last night. The robbery was detected this morning.

This was the second incident of a safe being stolen in the Saha area during the last fortnight. On December 24, the safe of a jewellery shop was stolen. The robbers had later taken out cash and other contents from the empty safe and the safe was found near Shahzadpur.

In last night’s incident, the robbers had broken the wall in which the safe had been fixed. They broke the boundary wall to drag the safe out. The safe contained Rs 3 lakh of bill collection.

Apparently, there was no watchman at the SDO office. An assistant lineman was looking after the office. He told the police that at about 3 am he had gone to serve tea at another office and he was not aware of the incident. He said that when he returned this morning to the SDO office, he discovered the theft.