Fatehabad, October 22
Owing to some indifferent attitude on the part of the authorities concerned, cotton-growing farmers are being fleeced by some unscrupulous traders in the various grain markets of the district. Fatehabad is one of the biggest growers of cotton in the district.

The Fatehabad grain market is flooded with white gold, the name by which American cotton is popularly called. After poor crops of cotton in the late nineties and early years of this century, the area has been producing very good crop of cotton for the past two years.

The cotton being a cash crop, farmers pin their hopes heavily on this crop for the implementation of their various plans. But the twin problems of non-procurement of cotton by the government agencies and the alleged collusion of market committee officials with the some unscrupulous traders is causing heavy financial losses to the farmers.

None of the government agencies like the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) and Hafed have started their purchases in Fatehabad district. In the absence of a government purchase agency, growers have been left to the mercy of local traders. With no competition from the government agencies, the traders have been fleecing the farmers by purchasing their crop at lower prices.

Though the farmers have been getting the minimum support price for their produce, this is much lesser than the price that the farmers of Punjab have been getting.

Some traders have been fleecing the farmers in another manner too. These traders purchase the crop on a particular price during the auction, but when the cotton heap is being weighed in their mills, they threaten the farmers to reject the heap on the pretext that the cotton underneath the heap is of inferior quality. The harried farmers have to compromise by reducing the price of their produce by Rs 30 to Rs 50 per quintal.

Mr Ranbir Singh Chaudhary, convener of the Young Farmers Association, demanded that the government agencies should immediately start purchase in the Fatehabad area.

He said that even if the government agencies purchased very small quantity of cotton, this ensured a better deal for farmers in the hands of private traders.

In the absence of state agencies, said Mr Chaudhary, the traders fleeced the farmers at will. He said that the government should immediately intervene to stop this exploitation of farmers.

Jhajjar, October 22
One person was murdered and 19 others were injured in two separate incidents of group clashes in Daboda and Kulasi villages of the district today.

According to information, a farmer, Surajmal, was shot dead and nine members of his family, mostly women, were injured when the rival group attacked them in a pre-planned move. Sources said that the families of Surajmal and the sarpanch of the village, Chandroop, were having a dispute over a piece of land in the village for a long time.

However, Chandroop, his sons Bhupinder, Manjeet and Vikram along with some accomplices, entered into a brawl with a woman, Manju, belonging to opposite family when she went to the disputed plot. As other family members arrived in her support, the sarpanch group starting firing and pelting stones and bricks.

Villagers said that about 60 to 70 rounds of shots were fired in the fight which lasted about three hours. While Surajmal was killed in the violence, Satbir was referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak, in serious condition. Kavita, Jagmati, Neelam, Dipak, Ombir and Rakesh also received serious injuries.

A heavy police contingent has been stationed at the village as well as in the Civil hospital in Bahadurgarh where the injured are admitted.

In another similar incident, about 10 persons were severely beaten up and injured by rival group in a land dispute at Kulasi village today. The injured were identified as Sandeep, Devender, Azad, Zile, Chandervati, Mankaur, Hava Singh, Jitender, Surender and Vinod. They alleged that Kaptan, Baljeet and Jagdish attacked them with lathis, jalis and other sharpedged weapons.

Rewari, October 22
Sessions Judge R.C. Bansal has sentenced a couple, Daya Nand (35) and his second wife Pavitra (30), to life imprisonment for killing a five-year old boy Naresh alias Ravinder, Daya Nand's son from his first wife Bala Devi. The incident took place at Gugodh village near Kosli on August 31, 2002.

The judge has also fined them Rs 5000 each.

When Daya Nand's first wife Bala Devi remained issueless for several years, he went in for second marriage with Pavitra, who bore him three sons— Rahul, Ranbir and Anirudh. In the mean time, his first wife Bala Devi too gave birth to a girl Pooja and a boy Naresh.

When the division of the landed property owned by Daya Nand's father Shish Ram became a bone of contention among the sons of his two wives, Pavitra, who insisted on getting a major chunk of the property for her sons, made a common cause with Daya Nand following which Bala Devi's son Naresh was administered poison.

Soon after that Daya Nand too consumed celphos after which he was rushed to Safdarjung hospital and was saved.

On a complaint lodged by Bala Devi, the Kosli police registered a case of murder under Sections 302, 34 of the IPC against Daya Nand and his second wife Pavitra who were arrested. 

Rewari, October 22
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Chander Prakash, said that Rewari city would be developed into a global city on the pattern of Gurgaon.

Addressing a press conference here, he asserted that the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, was taking a keen interest in the rapid development of the city which would soon have civic amenities at par with other metropolitan cities of the country.

A huge amount of Rs 9,148 lakh had been allocated for various development projects, most of which were already in progress here. The on-going Rs 1,825 lakh National Capital Region (NCR) Rural Water Supply Scheme, when fully accomplished, would make 410 villages of the district immune from drinking water shortage.

Similarly, a provision of Rs 1,745 lakh had also been made under the NCR Project for augmentation of drinking water supply, sewerage system and construction of stormwater channel in the city, he added.

Mentioning a specific city beautification project, the Deputy Commissioner said while roads and drains in slum colonies would be built at a cost of Rs 40 lakh, as many as eight community centres would be set up in various colonies at a cost of Rs 65 lakh.

A sum of Rs 20 lakh would be spent on equipping city parks with a fine lighting and musical systems. Besides, the four historical gates — Delhi Gate, Gokal Gate, Jaipur Gate and Kanod Gate here, were also being renovated expeditiously.

Bhiwani, October 22
The Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has promoted 19 officers and ordered their transfers and postings.

Superintendent Engineer G.D. Gupta has been promoted Chief Engineer and posted General Manager (Commercial) the Superintending Engineer (Operations) the Gurgaon has been posted at Hisar headquarters as Chief Engineer (M.M.).

Similarly, 14 assistant executive engineers have been promoted executive engineers. Of these Mr C.S. Arora has been posted Executive Engineer (Construction), Gurgaon Division, Mr Vikas Malik as executive engineer (HSIIDC), Mr A.K. Bansal as Executive Engineer (Commercial), Hisar Headquarters, Mr P.C. Kansal as Chief Engineer (Planning), Hisar, Mr M.M. Gupta as Chief Engineer (M&P), Bhiwani, Mr R.S. Gupta as Chief Engineer (Power Purchase), Hisar and Mr O.P. Saluja, Chief Engineer (M.M.), Hisar. Similarly, Mr B.S. Rathi has been posted Secretary (Consumer Forum), Mr R.K. Verma Chief Engineer (Construction), Sirsa, Mr R.S. Yadav Chief Engineer (Operations, Mohindergarh, Mr Sant Kumar Singh as Chief Engineer (Operations), Dabwali, Mr Rajinder Singh as Chief Engineer (Inventory) in the office of Controller of Stores, Mrs Vanita Singh Chief Engineer (R.A.) Headquarters and Mr K.C. Aggarwal has been posted Chief Engineer (Headquarters), Hisar.

Besides these, Deputy Superintendents Balwan Singh, Ramchander Joshan and Puran Mal Sharma have been promoted superintendents at the headquarters.

Yamunanagar, October 22
A 22-year old woman alleged that she was thrown out of the house by her husband and in-laws when she gave birth to a girl child. She has also said the police was not taking any action despite her complaint .

Rajni Devi of Panjlasa village of Ambala district said she made a complaint at the Sadhaura police station. A police official there admitted that she along with her father had come to the police station few days ago. “Later, she probably took the matter to the panchayat and that is why probably never came to the police again,” said the official. 

Yamunanagar, October 22
The driver of the District Primary Education Officer (DPEO) has been booked for cheating and threat.

He allegedly took Rs 10,000 from a resident of Talakaur village on the promise of getting him a job of peon in a school.

Police sources said driver Jitender Kumar took the money from Sukhdev Singh. Sukhdev was promised a job in lieu of the money.

It has also been alleged that Jitender threatened Sukhdev on September 20, 2005.

A case under Sections 420, 406 and 506 of the IPC was registered after the matter was investigated by the Economic Cell of the police.