Chandigarh, October 18
The Haryana Government has asked the Centre to expedite action on the Land Reclamation and Water Management (LRWM) Project keeping in view the drastic shortage of water for agriculture in the state. Urging the Government of India to take up the project with the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC), Haryana hopes to reclaim 45,750 hectares and bring an additional 44,000 hectares under irrigation.

Agricultural experts in the state term this as a vital step to maintain Haryana’s position as the second largest contributor to the Central foodgrain pool and the third largest wheat-producing state in the country. The LRWM project will cost Rs 935 crore to implement over a period of seven years.

Before leaving on a two-week, five-nation tour the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, wrote to the Centre saying: “Haryana was in the vanguard of the Green Revolution and we could have achieved much more if we had our rightful share of water. The continual denial of Haryana’s share of the Ravi-Beas water through the SYL canal is an obstacle and it needs to be cleared at the earliest. In the absence of this water, the state has no option but to further draw upon the overexploited ground water resources contributing to power deficit”.

The Haryana Government has shared with the Centre its efforts to conserve ground water by dissuading farmers from sowing the water-guzzling satthi variety of paddy — once popular with farmers. Fiftyfour per cent of Haryana has brackish water, causing a surface water deficit of 18 maf. Yet it is commendable that 84 per cent area in the state is under irrigation.

Reduction in the sowing of the satthi crop this year is expected to help cut water consumption, resulting in checking of the depletion of the water table. The satthi variety has been popular with farmers as it is ready for sale in 60 days. In the wheat-rice cycle, farmers could actually produce a third crop. But owing to its high requirement of water, this crop has an adverse impact on the state’s water table. Government efforts to discourage the sowing of satthi has led to a significant reduction of the crop area from 17,654 hectares in 2005-06 to 1,249 hectares this year.

To make financial sense to farmers, while they were discouraged from sowing satthi, they were encouraged to cultivate dhaincha, a green manure crop. Farmers have been educated on how the green manure led to the conservation of water and the environment, besides maintaining the nutrient level of land.

Officials in the government said to build the farmers’ confidence and support satthi cultivators, 3,000 quintals of dhaincha seed had been distributed free of cost. This season the state expected dhaincha cultivation on about 25,000 acres.

Farmers in Haryana are also being encouraged to cultivate pulses such as moong and urd, vegetables and fodder crops through various kisan seminars held across the state. They have also been given subsidy on the seeds of pulses.

Chandigarh, October 18
Mr Deepinder Hooda, Member of the Lok Sabha from Rohtak, today said the Central Government left out Punjab and Haryana from the package announced by it for debt-ridden farmers because farmers in the four states chosen by the Centre for the relief were found to be in a much worse condition than their counterparts in the two northern states.

Mr Hooda was responding to questions at a meet-the-Press programme at the Chandigarh Press Club here.

The Congress MP, said to be the youngest member of the present Lok Sabha, said he was a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture and was aware of the exercise carried out by the Centre for announcing the package.

He said districtwise surveys were conducted and suicide rates among the farmers were found alarming in the four beneficiary states. Shortage of rainfall and other vagaries of nature had put the farmers in precarious situation in those states, Mr Hooda said.

He said though he was concerned about the interests of Haryana farmers, he was also a nationalist and could appreciate the Centre's decision to extend help to the debt-ridden farmers of the four states.

Mr Hooda, who also happens to be the only son of the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, added that no session of Parliament had been held since the package was announced by the Centre and thus it was not possible for him to raise the issue in the Lok Sabha.

The MP said he had been consistently raising various issues relating to agriculturists in the Lok Sabha. He said he had been demanding multiple MSPs (minimum support prices) for the procurement of grain from farmers by official agencies. The MSPs should be determined keeping in view the cost of production of grain in various areas of the country.

He said by adopting the policy of multiple MSPs, the Centre could offer remunerative prices to farmers for their produce and keep private traders at bay.

This would also go a long way in preventing private traders from hoarding grain, Mr Hooda said.

On various allegations repeatedly hurled against the Congress government in the state by fellow Lok Sabha member Kuldeep Bishnoi, Mr Hooda said a Congress member should ideally discuss such issues in the party forums instead of publicly criticising the state government. He said it was up to the party high command to decide whether disciplinary action should be initiated against Mr Bishnoi.

Mr Hooda added that politicians should refrain from making irresponsible and baseless statements. On the issue of the acquisition of land by Reliance India Limited for the SEZ project in Jhajjar, Mr Hooda said people in the area, which was part of his Lok Sabha constituency, had welcomed the project. Farmers were happy because they were getting hefty compensation for their land while young persons were also happy because they were expecting to get jobs in the project, Mr Hooda said.

Hisar, October 18
With a view to tapping innovative potential of residents, the Union Ministry of Science and Technology has launched a novel scheme called technopreneur promotion programme (TePP), which is jointly operated by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

The programme aims at promoting individual innovators to become technology-based entrepreneurs. Under the scheme, a financial support is provided to selected and screened individual innovators having original ideas for converting them into working models or prototypes.

Any Indian citizen having an original idea, invention or technical knowhow can apply for getting the benefit of the scheme. The TePP provides 90 per cent of the total project cost to the innovators, while the remaining 10 per cent is to be borne by the innovator or inventor.

The programme also assists the technopreneur in networking and forge linkages with other constituents of the innovation chain for commercialisation of their developments.

Talking to The Tribune, Mr D.S. Kajal, Senior Technical Manager with the Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation, said an engineer, scientist, agriculturist, student or a housewife having an original and worthwhile innovative idea could get an aid of up to Rs 10 lakh under the programme.

Mr Kajal was here in connection with a camp organised to attract and identify innovators for providing financial aid under the scheme. Mr P.K. Datta, a senior scientist with the DSIR, besides Mr Pratap Singh Yadav and Mr Rajesh Yadav, detailed the innovators about various aspects of the scheme.

Mr P.K. Goyal, project manager, Hartron, listed the achievements of the centre till date.

Innovators of the district and nearby areas of the region evinced a keen interest in the programme. As many as 24 innovators presented their ideas and innovations before the experts.

Panipat, October 18
Some bureaucrats in the state were working against the interests of government and public under the influence of the INLD president, Mr Om Parkash Chautala, and the government would tackle them appropriately. This was claimed by Mr Roshan Lal Arya, chairman, Haryana Seed Development Corporation, and former MLA, Chachchroli while talking to newsmen here today.

There were complaints about some bureaucrats that they were not working in the interests of public to spoil the image of government, said Mr Arya adding that these officials would be scrutinized and dealt with accordingly.

Attacking Mr Bhajan Lal, and his MP son Kuldeep Bishnoi, Mr Arya said they were stabbing the Congress in the back by organizing tea parties, where only anti-party agenda was discussed.

He said the former Chief Minister could not digest the fact that someone else was elected to the party post after the assembly elections last year. Though Mr Bhajan Lal remained the Chief Minister for 12 years, he and his son were busy in weakening the party, rued Mr Arya. Mr Bhajan Lal wanted instability in the state as he saw in it a chance to grab the power, alleged Mr Arya.

The party loyalists did not retaliate and it was presumed that they would stop their anti-party activities. But now they had crossed the 'lakshman rekha', said Mr Arya.

The former Chief Minister could test his popularity by contesting elections after resigning from their seats, challenged Mr Arya.

Praising Mr Hooda, the former MLA reminded that the state got the investment of Rs 41,000 crore during the regime of the present Congress government while a total of Rs 40,000 crore was invested since the formation of Haryana state in 1996.

Rohtak, October 18
The government has decided to extend the deadline for waiving arrears of power bills of farmers to October 31. This means that the farmers who failed to avail the benefit can still start paying their current bills and get their arrears up to June 17, 2005, waived.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had announced his decision to waive of electricity bill arrears to the tune of Rs 1600 crore and the scheme was implemented from June 17 last year.

Under the scheme, pending bills of defaulters of rural areas were to be waived of provided they started paying their current bills and continued paying these for the next 20 months.

An official spokesman said here today that defaulters who opted to start paying their current electricity bills now would also have to pay the actual amount of bills from June 17, 2005 to October 31 next. The state government had also waived of surcharge on the bills of this period and the defaulter would have to pay a nominal late fee.

He said the government had also offered a Divali gift to those power consumers whose electricity connections were permanently disconnected. Such consumers could also get their power supply reconnected up to October 31.

Ambala, October 18
Different competitions were held in DAV Public School, Ambala City, today.

In rangoli, Shefali, Madhvi, Ritu and Shradha were first, Manisha Saharan, Manisha, Megha and Isha were second while Ruchi, Jasmine, Sonia and Nancy were third. Consolation prize winners are Dikshita, Sonali, Vishwas and Kshitij.

In pooja thali decoration, Nishtha Saini was first, Ritu was second while Naveen Kaushik and Rahul were third. Consolation prize went to Vaishali and Gurpreet.

In diya decoration, Shikha was first, Nain Tara was second and Pitamber was third while consolation prize went to Honey. In candle decoration, Muskan was first, Sharan was second and Chirag was third while Divyanshi got the consolation prize.

In card making, Savi Batra was first, Twinkle was second and Mandeep was third while Ankush received the consolation prize. In dry flower arrangement, Mohit and Yogesh were first, Souravjeet and Shubham were second, Himang and Himanshu were third while consolation prize went to Rajeev, Rohit and Nancy.

In bouquet making, Jasmer and Jatinder were first, Sangeeta, Harneet and Surekha were second while Pallavi, Vishu and Swati were third. Consolation prize went to Prinkal and Shringarika.

Kaithal, October 18
The police has arrested a man who along with one more person duped a farmer of Kakheri village and deprived him of Rs 12 lakh promising to send his son to Canada. The accused was produced in court which remanded him to police custody for two days .

Giving this information to mediapersons here today, the SSP, Mr Navdeep Singh Virk, said that Karnail Singh, a farmer of Kakheri village, had lodged a complaint with police that he used to sell his crop with a commission agent firm working under the name of Messers Jai Shanker trading Company, Cheeka .

The firm owed him Rs 9 lakh on account of sale proceeds of his crop. As he wanted to purchase some agricultural land and demanded his money from the firm, two partners of this firm, Sham Lal Agarwal and Tony pursued him to send his son Kuldip to Canada.

They told him that as the total expenses to send his son to Canada would be around Rs 12 lakh, he should pay them Rs 3 lakh. They also took passport and other documents of Kuldip .

After about 15 days, Karnail was informed that the passport of his son had been lost and he will have to arrange a duplicate passport . They took Karnail to Delhi but refused to cooperate with him.

A Panchayat held at the initiative of Karnail failed to settle the issue. Ultimately, Karnail lodged a complaint with the police. The police has arrested Sham Lal Agarwal under Sections 406, 420,506 and 120-IPC. Efforts were on to nab Tony who was still at large , the SSP added.