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Clerk who blew lid off scam killed
Arable land not to be acquired for SEZ: Dwivedi
Horticulture gaining ground
A village that avoids school
Hike in sugarcane price less than meagre
Zonal youth festival begins
Anti-polio drive gets under way
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PO held with poppy husk
Two killed in road mishap
Kidnap bid foiled
Inmate of orphanage escapes
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Clerk who blew lid off scam killed
Chandigarh, November 12 Even as justice has been denied to him as his ‘killers’ have not been arrested, the Housing Board on its own has announced a monthly subsistence allowance of Rs 3,100 to his widow and five minor children. Though the trio were also dismissed from service by the board, at least one of them, enjoying political clout, has been re-instated. Forty-nine year old Om Prakash was found dead, with his neck slashed by a sharp-edged weapon on April 4 earlier this year. His family alleged that he had detected lakhs being siphoned off from the board’s accounts, allegedly by the Estate Manager, a clerk and a peon. Om Prakash brought the matter to the notice of senior officers of the board, which instigated the accused, and they had threatened to kill him. The Estate Manager and the peon allegedly hired a professional killer, to execute “the job”. Though the two have been named in the FIR, for the murder of Om Prakash and destruction of evidence, registered at Police Station, Sohna (Gurgaon), the police has failed to arrest them. Family members of Om Prakash allege that because the Estate Manager enjoys “support of some influential MLA in Haryana”, the police has refused to arrest him. These two officials, along with another clerk in the Palwal Estate Branch, have also been booked on charges of embezzlement, cheating and fraud. These three officials had siphoned off lakhs of rupees, collected as dues from the Housing Board allottees. Senior officials in the board informed TNS that the accused were working in connivance with certain allottees. The modus operandi was simple - the allottee instead of depositing the full dues, would deposit a part of it in the Estate Branch and give a sizeable share to these officials. This money would be deposited in the bank, but the officials would enter the exact dues recoverable, in the collection register and personal ledger account as maintained in the Demand and Recovery Register. Interestingly, the charge of these records was under the clerk. However, the peon, who was not authorised to make any entry, was managing the records. The Estate Manager, who was attesting the register, however, failed to take any action against the accused. After an inquiry was ordered by the Housing Board top brass - the trio were found guilty of embezzlement and later dismissed from service. All three, when questioned by the inquiry committee at its meeting, had accused the other two of fraud. However, the Estate Manager, filed an appeal before Commissioner and Secretary, Housing Development, against the order of dismissal passed by Chief Administrator, Housing Board. The Commissioner said that prima facie, no criminal offence was made out against the appellant as he had not been found to be involved in alleged misappropriation. The Commissioner, in his order, also said that “he (Estate Manager) deserved interim relief from any criminal action at this stage….”
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Arable land not to be acquired for SEZ: Dwivedi
Panipat, November 12 Commenting on the statement of Congress MP from the state Kuldip Bishnoi that Mr Bhajan Lal could form a separate party after Rohtak rally. Mr Dwivedi said there were no factions in the party and those who tried to establish their identity after leaving the party went in oblivion. Mr Dwivedi told reporters the party’s interests were suffering in the state because of the rhetoric of Mr Bhajan Lal and Mr Kuldip Bishnoi. “Yes, the party suffers when a member adopts different line of action,” quipped Mr Dwivedi when asked if the statements by Mr Bhajan Lal and his MP son were damaging the party in the state. On the issue of SEZ Mr Dwivedi assured no agricultural land would be acquired for mega projects. “The policy of the party on SEZ was clear and party president Ms Sonia Gandhi had also said arable land would not be acquired for SEZs” said the Congress AICC general secretary. Commending the performance of state government Mr Dwivedi claimed all promises made in the election manifesto were being implemented. Refusing to comment on the SYL canal issue on the pretext that the matter was pending with the apex court Mr Dwivedi said the party was of the view that all states get due share of the river waters. Mr Dwivedi who reached local PWD rest house in the evening was received by party workers and local MP Arvind Sharma with Mr Deep Chand Phulia and Mr Jagdev Malik, both presidents of DCC (urban) and (rural), respectively. However all four MLAs of party from the district were not present. |
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Horticulture gaining ground
Chandigarh, November 12 Stating this here today, a spokesman of Haryana Horticulture Department said the farmers were taking keen interest in replacing traditional crops by commercial crops like flowers and spices. The area under vegetable cultivation had touched 2.50 lakh hectares, he said. He said the department was concentrating on overall development of horticulture in the state through various interventions and strategies. These included a scheme for agricultural human resource development, under which Rs 66 lakh had been earmarked for providing training to farmers. In another scheme known as Popularisation and Extension of Latest Technologies in Horticulture, various technical activities were being undertaken for providing training to farmers by organising state-level shows, seminars, ad horticulture expositions. A sum of Rs 20 lakh had been earmarked for this scheme for the current financial year. He said the National Horticulture Mission, a centrally-sponsored scheme, had also been launched in the state covering 14 out of 20 districts during the last financial year with a financial outlay of Rs 20 crore. The objective of the scheme is to increase area under fruits, establishment of model nurseries, flower production, spice production, medicinal and aromatic production, rejuvenation of old orchards, integrated pest management, training of farmers, vegetable seed production and mushroom production. |
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A village that avoids school
Panipat, November 12 In this village with a population of more than 1000 of Muslims only and a majority of children, only one person could complete his matriculation while another student was pursuing matric in the high school of the neighbouring Garhi Besak village. None of the residents from this village have got any government job. Interestingly, the village has no television. The village has a government primary school and a madarsa. While the madarsa has more than 700 students on its rolls, the government school could not enroll more than 200 students. “The children go to the madarsa early morning and study about their religion and many of them attend the school after 9 in the morning when the two teachers employed there reach here by bus,” informed Farman, the village sarpanch. “There are not more than three hundred students who attend the classes in the government school,” said Ahsan, who is the lone student of class X in the village. Nobody from the village has any job in the government so no one is interested in getting education, informed Farman. “One child, Alisan, is twelfth pass, but still could not get any job,” said Farman. Claiming that the villagers had put a ban on themselves voluntarily for not getting any television in the village the sarpanch said no none in the village could be seen playing cards. |
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Hike in sugarcane price less than meagre
Yamunanagar, November 12 Meanwhile, the Saraswati Sugar Mill, one of the largest in Asia will start crushing cane from November 16 and set a target crushing of 200 lakh quintal. Senior BJP leader Ghanshaym Dass said 4 per cent increase in the price of the cane was a joke with farmers. He said hike in price had revealed the state government was playing into the hands of the sugar lobby of the country”. He said cost of cane plantation increased by 20 per cent and price should have been Rs 150 per quintal. Dr Shamsher Singh Tyagi, general secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Sangh said when farmers were
committing suicide because of poverty the government added to their woes. He alleged the government was pro-industrialist and anti – farmer. He also demanded the farmers should not be made to bear the cost of transportation of cane from purchase centres to the mill. The sangh also demanded a cooperative mill in the district. Mr Sahib Singh of the INLD said the increase in sugarcane price had proved the Congress government was anti people. |
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Zonal youth festival begins
Kaithal, November 12 Dr Mahavir Singh, Commissioner, Ambala Division, inaugurated the festival and Dr Rajinder Kataria, Deputy Commissioner, Kaithal, was the guest of honour. Dr S.K. Garg, Principal, RKSD College, gave details of the achievements of the college. In the first day’s events in choreography, University College got the first place and the RKSD College and the DAV College, Pehowa, got the second place. In solo dance (men),the RKSD College remained first and the BPR College, Kurukshetra, second. In solo dance (women), the RKSD College remained first. Dr Mahavir Singh said the youth should fix their targets to be achieved in life and then work hard to achieve them. He said the youth should accept the challenges before them during their student life and later in their career. |
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Anti-polio drive gets under way
Bhiwani, November 12 Launching a three-day campaign from the Harijan chaupal at Dadri Gate here today, Deputy Commissioner Mohinder Kumar, while administering polio drops to a child, said health teams would go door-to-door to ensure polio drops to every child up to the age of five years. The Civil Surgeon, Dr Ram Chander, said 880 polio booths had been set up under the supervision of the District
Immunisation Officer, Dr M.L. Bundela. Of these, 756 booths had been set up in rural areas and 124 in urban areas. As many as 3,520 teams had been deputed on these booths, he said. He said that 41 mobile teams and 30 transit teams had also been constituted for this work. The transit teams would administer polio drops to the children at railway station,
bus stand, main roundabouts Rohtak Gate, Ghantaghar, etc. |
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PO held with poppy husk
Fatehabad, November 12 Mr Saurabh Singh, SP, said that on a tip-off, a police party stopped a scooter near Sardarewala village. On search of the vehicle, the police recovered 9 kg of poppy husk from it. The police arrested the rider, Shiv Dayal and his companion Des Raj, with the contraband. The SP said that after verification of the record, it was found that Shiv Dayal was wanted by the police in trafficking of poppy husk and three cases had been registered against him in 2000, 2002 and 2005. |
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Two killed in road mishap
Fatehabad, November 12 According to reports, the victims had started their journey from Gohana and were going to Sikandarpur Dera, near Sirsa town, to participate in a religious congregation. When their car reached near Dariyapur at about 6.30 a.m., the car collided head on with a tractor-trailer coming from the opposite direction. The car was badly damaged. Two persons, both identified as Rajinder, died on the spot. Three others, Sanjay, Joginder and Nasib Ali, were injured and rushed to the local General Hospital. Their kin later arrived from Gohana and shifted the injured to their town. |
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Father insists son
was murdered
Chandigarh, November 12 The police want to pass the incident as a case of suicide. However, Amit Kumar's father, Mr Pritam Singh, a peon employed with the Haryana Government here, has not given up hope of getting the “accused” booked for his son’s “murder” “It is murder”, insists Mr Pritam Singh, who identified his son's body when it was found lying near the track on November 6 last year. He says his family is having a dispute over land with some villagers and these villagers are responsible for the alleged murder. The FIR was also registered by the Government Railway Police (GRP) following the incident but nobody has been arrested so far, he says. |
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Kidnap bid foiled
Ambala, November 12 The incident took place when Saurabh had gone to fill up diesel in his Indica car at a filling station near Mohra at about 9 pm. A few youths assaulted him at the petrol station and they tried to take him away in his car. A truck driver and a cleaner, who were present there, tried to intervene on noticing the commotion. Saurabh was beaten up and he was dropped off a short distance away. The youths sped away in his car. Saurabh was taken to a private hospital in Ambala Sadar. The police is investigating the matter. |
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Inmate of orphanage escapes
Yamunanagar, November 12 As per sources, Shiva who had been staying in Bal Kunj since October last went missing after 1 p.m. The police has been informed. The sources added that Shiva was believed to be mentally challenged. An official, requesting anonymity, said that Bal Kunj was meant for orphans only but mentally challenged and street peddlers too had been made to stay here. On October 30 also two inmates had fled and till date there is no information about them. |
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Ambala, November 12
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Chandigarh, November 12
