Hisar, January 8
Senior BJP leader and former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi has accused the Congress of ignoring the interests of farmers. Terming the Centre's policies as pro-industrialist and anti-farmer, Mr Joshi asserted that the BJP would struggle to safeguard the farmers' interests.

The BJP leader, who was here today, maintained that freeing the farmers from the vicious debt circle was the need of the hour. He demanded that the UPA government at the Centre should bring an agriculture-based budget. He said the move to set up SEZ smacked of a conspiracy against the farmers.

Mr Joshi maintained that a majority of the farmers in the country were debt-ridden and merely reducing the rate of interest on agricultural loans was not enough to improve their lot. He decried the agricultural pact signed with the USA, stating that it was in favour of the multinational companies.

The former minister also condemned the dislocating of Hindi-speaking people of Assam by the ULFA extremists.

Chandigarh, January 8
Legal hurdles have held up the implementation of the agreement reached between the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, and Sarswati Sugar Mills, Yamunanagar, on July 11, 2006.

Under the agreement, the mill was to pay the arrears of sugarcane growers for 2002-03 without interest. However, the mill has not made the payment even after six months.

The state government had asked the sugar mills to pay Rs 104 to Rs 110 per quintal (depending upon the variety of sugarcane) to the canegrowers in 2002-03 against the Rs 69.50 per quintal statutory minimum price (SMP) fixed by the Centre for sugar recovery of 8.5 per cent. The mills were supposed to pay an additional Rs 8 for every 1 per cent increase in sugar recovery. Later the Centre announced a bonus of Rs 5, making Rs 74.50 per quintal the effective SMP.

The state advisory price (SAP) of Rs 104 to Rs 110 per quintal was fixed by the then Chautala government in 1999-2000. The Yamunanagar mill had been paying the SAP to the cane growers till 2001-02. However, in 2002-03, the mill moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the government's directions to pay the SAP to the growers. The mill's contention was that the state government was not empowered to fix the cane price. Since the Supreme Court was seized of similar cases, the High Court issued an interim order that if the apex court decided against the sugar mills, the Yamunanagar mill would pay the arrears to the growers along with an interest of 18 per cent. The mill paid the SMP to the growers.

While holding that the states can fix the SAP, the Supreme Court asked the contesting parties to get their cases settled in their respective High Courts. Now the dispute remains over the payment of the difference between the SMP and the SAP, which comes to over Rs 30 crore, exclusive of interest.

While the High Court is still to decide the case, the mill paid the SAP to the growers in 2003-04, allegedly under political pressure because in that year the Lok Sabha elections were due.

Surprisingly, the Chautala government never fixed the SAP for 2002-03. While the cooperative sector sugar mills paid the previous year's SAP under an executive order, the private mills took shelter behind the plea that the SAP had not been fixed and they paid only the SMP to the farmers.

The Yamunanagar mill is now reluctant to honour the agreement it had reached with Mr Hooda because it is afraid that if in future (say after a change of guard in the state) the next government fixed the SAP for 2002-03 with retrospective effect, it would have to pay interest for the delayed period.

The mill wants an assurance from the government that the SAP would never be fixed for 2002-03, which the government is reluctant to do, perhaps for political reasons. A practical difficulty has also come up before the state government in giving this assurance. The other two private sector mills in the state had paid more than the SAP to the growers. Even the Naraingarh sugar mill, which had been defaulting so far, has now almost paid the entire amount of the arrears for 2002-03.

If the government gives an assurance that the SAP for that year would not be fixed, the other two mills would be well within their rights to demand the excess amount paid by them to the growers.

Since the High Court had given its interim order on the writ petition filed by the Yamunanagar mill, the tangle cannot be resolved even if the mill withdraws its petition. In that case, it can be legally presumed that the mill has accepted the right of the state government to fix the SAP and the growers can demand interest on their delayed payment.

Karnal, January 8
Though the Karnal police remained busy in organsing seminars and educating masses on the traffic rules during the Traffic Safety Week that concluded on Sunday, cops themselves failed miserably in implementing the same.

Several government officials in the district go scot-free while illegally using blue light with flashers atop their official vehicles in public, the Karnal police continues to “harass” the common man on the NH 1 and the township by challaning them randomly.

Though the DSP, Mr Jagat Singh, failed to give details of the total challans, sources said a wing of the Karnal police had “laid” a trap on NH 1 users and challaned more than 70 vehicles.

A day after the much-publicised safety week revealed that no sincere effort had been made to ease out the traffic conditions in the town.

Visitors to the Mini Secretariat, that houses the offices of the DC and the SP and the judicial complex, still find it hard to park their vehicles. The district police has failed to deploy cops to man the haphazard parking at the public place.

Similar is the situation in other crowded places of the town where the cops on duty prefer to either bask in the sun or smoke bidis rather than regulate the traffic.

A battery of government officials in the district, including an HCS officer, illegally use blue light with a flasher atop their vehicles.

The Tribune had earlier highlighted the issue in these columns after which the former DC had issued orders to the “violators” (read officials).

Among the government officials who overlook the official directions include the CMO, Dr S. S. Dalal, the Managing Director of Karnal Co-operative Sugar Mill, Mr R. C. Bidhan, the Executive Officer (EO), Mr Bishnoi, the Tehsiledar, Nilokheri, Mr Paramjit Singh, and the president of the MC, Mr Balwinder Singh Kalra.

Kaithal, January 8
The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Rajinder Kataria, today directed the police and the officials concerned to register a case against JE of BDPO Pundri Sanjay Nijhawan. He was redressing public grievances at an open durbar at Mini Secretariat here. These orders were passed by the DC on a complaint made by Sat Pal Singh and others of Ahmadpur village. They had alleged that the said JE, who has been transferred from this place, has neither handed over charge nor got completed the work of construction of road leading to cremation ground there.

Mr Kataria also issued directions to the municipal council and officials of other departments concerned not to allow encroachments on any public land, including roads in rural and urban areas. He asked the officials to take stern action against encroacher and remove encroachments from public places.

The DC also served a stern warning to rehriwalas to keep their rehris at specified places only and said that strict action would be taken against any one found guilty of violating these instructions. He also asked officials of the municipal committee Kalayat to make proper arrangements for draining out stagnant water in the Kalayat town area. Mr Kataria also asked the officials to start construction work on the schemes announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda immediately so that the benefit of such schemes could percolate to the beneficiaries at the earliest. 

Hisar, January 8
The police has busted an inter-state gang of telephone cable thieves with the arrest of its kingpin, Anwar, from Delhi. While some members of the gang have already been arrested, Anwar has been arrested only now from Delhi.

The SSP, Mr Arshinder Singh Chawla, said here today that this gang, comprising 18 to 20 members, was involved in several cases of theft of copper telephone cable from different parts of Punjab and Haryana.

Mr Chawla disclosed that the gang was responsible for the theft of cable in Hisar, Bhiwani, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Faridabad, Bathinda, Khanna, Ludhiana and Alwar. He claimed that the same gang was behind the recent theft of 1,200 metres of telephone cable from the Rajgarh Road in Hisar.

The gang leader, Anwar, was today produced in a local court, which remanded him in police custody for four days. Earlier, he was also presented before mediapersons where he confessed his crime.

The SSP asserted that the case of a body found from the Kishangarh branch canal in the Adampur area had also been solved. A case under Section 302,IPC, had been registered and Aggarsen, Jagatpal and Gul Mohammad arrested in this connection.

The three persons, with the help of some others, had allegedly killed their friend Vikram, son of Het Ram of Badoppal village, and thrown his body into the canal. They were produced in a local court, which remanded them in police custody for two days.

Meanwhile, during the Road Safety Week, the local police challaned 1,576 vehicle drivers and impounded 265 vehicles.

Vinod, alias Tunda, who had been evading arrest for the past six years, has been arrested. He was allegedly involved in preparing fake documents of vehicles.

Ambala, January 8
The district Congress president, Mr Arun Garg, declared the other office bearers of DCC here yesterday. As many as four vice-presidents and six general secretaries were nominated in the new body.

Senior Congress leader Dharm Pal Kalia, Mr Kuldeep Singh Gullu and Mr Karnail Singh Bai were nominated as vice-presidents while Mr Raman Kumar, Ms Jasbir Kaur Babbal, Mr Bharat Rattan Sharma, Mr Devender Bajaj, Mr Rajan Guglani and Mr Tahal Ram will hold the charge of general secretary. Mr Chaman Lal will be the new treasurer of the DCC.

Mr Luxmi Chand Dhiman, Mr Narinderjit Singh, Mr Bharat Sharma, Mr Rajesh Bhatt and Mr Munish Kumar were nominated as secretaries. Similarly, the post of organising secretary was offered to Mr Arjun Dhiman, Mr Ved Verma, Mr Ashok Bundi, Mr S.K. Gupta and Mr Surender Pal Singh. Mr Ravinder Gupta will deal with press and publicity.

Ambala, January 8
The kidnapping case of a young woman from Delhi, who was later left at Ambala, has turned murkier. During the course of investigation, certain aspects have come to light which seem to put a question mark on the motive behind the kidnapping.

The possible involvement of a faith healer is being looked into by the investigators. The mobile phone records of the young woman are also being checked.

Superintendent of Police, Ambala, Mr Amitabh Dhillon, said that the police had questioned the persons whom the young woman claim are her kidnappers. "They have a different story to tell. They claim that the young woman was under the influence of a faith healer and thus registered a case of sexual violation against them at the Tilak Nagar police station in Delhi," he said.

Mr Dhillon added that most of the persons named by the young woman have been granted bail.

"They claim to have earlier complained to the police in Delhi that the faith healer had mislead them and thus he is getting back at them by using this young woman," he said.

The young woman, however, maintained that she had given a true account of what had happened to her. She did not give any phone numbers which could be used to cross-check her story. She stated that all the numbers were in her mobile which is in the possession of the police.

Police officials will cross-check the statements given by these persons. They have also been asked to come here with evidence to prove their cause.

Ambala, January 8
The annual budget of the Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, was passed today. The budget proposed for 2007-08 showed an earning of Rs 5 lakh for the Municipal Council. While the budgetary expenditure will be Rs 11,05,50,000, the budgetary income will be Rs 11,09,50,000.

In earnings, house tax will be Rs 2,25,00,000, rental will be Rs 1,40,00,000, tehbazari will be Rs 30,00,000, while miscellaneous will be Rs 7,14,50,000.

In expenditure, establishment will be Rs 5,30,00,000, contingency will be Rs 2,83,00,000, development Rs 1,88,00,000, while miscellaneous will be Rs 1,04,50,000.

Ambala, January 8
A petrol pump owner was looted of Rs 2.75 lakh at gunpoint in Naraingarh today.

Mr Ramjilal Saini, owner of the Pawan Kumar Saini filling station was on his way to the bank in Naraingarh from Barsumajra when he was accosted by two persons who had their faces covered. They whipped out a gun and snatched the bag which contained cash and threatened him with dire consequences if he refused.

The duo also took away Mr Saini's purse, which contained cash, and a mobile phone. Before they sped away, they removed a wire from Mr Saini's motorcycle because of which his motorcycle did not start.

Mr Saini told the police that the cash had been collected over the last two days.

The petrol pump had been allocated to the next of kin of martyr Pawan Kumar who had died defending the nation's territories. — TNS