Panipat, April 15
The controversy surrounding the acquisition of land at Dadlana village for IOC's petrochemical hub has taken a new turn with the village sarpanch accepting the compensation for 25 acres of panchayat land falling under the proposed site.

Sarpanch Narinder Rana argued that had he not accepted

the payment, it would have got deposited with the DDPO. Sources said a payment of Rs 5.23 crore had been made to the sarpanch for 25 acres of panchayat land. On the other hand, the farmers are still maintaining their stand and are reluctant to hand over their land to the IOC.

Talking to The Tribune, Baldev Singh, a farmer whose land has also been identified for acquisition, said the sarpanch may have taken the amount, but he was still supporting them. He said they were demanding a land rate of Rs 35 lakh per acre, a job in IOC for one member of each family whose land is being acquired, leave out their residences

and gurdwara out of the plan, and either a deadline of six months to hand over land or adequate compensation. He claimed that the land opposite to his field today has a market value of Rs 45 lakh per acre.

"In such a scenario how can we accept Rs 19 lakh per acre for our land," he wondered.

Fatehabad, April 15
Matters pertaining to theft of electricity by consumers will now be tried by courts of additional district and sessions judges at the district 
headquarters.

Following orders from the Punjab and Haryana High Court to this effect, the district courts have started the process of summoning files of cases of theft of electricity pending in lower courts.

Earlier, the courts of civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates at the subdivision level were trying the cases.

The district court, however, had the appellate jurisdiction in such cases.

The latest shift in the jurisdiction has been made by the high court in view of the provisions of sections 135-153 of the Indian Electricity Act 2003, which provide that the cases of theft of electricity would be entertained by the special court, whose presiding officer will not be below the rank of an additional district and sessions judge.

Though the Act came into force from January 2004 and the state government was supposed to take steps for constitution of special courts before the implementation of the Act, the lower courts, that of civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates, continued exercising jurisdiction in such cases as they were doing earlier under the Indian Electricity Act, 1910, because the government had failed to constitute special courts in time.

The Haryana government, according to sources, requested the Punjab and Haryana High Court to constitute special courts through its notification dated January 18, 2007.

Hisar, April 15
After facing job crunch for the past several years, graduates in agriculture from Haryana Agricultural University are finally finding employment in banks, private companies and sugar mills.

Since January, banks have picked up 31 graduates for the post of trainee agriculture officers. The State Bank of India and the State Bank of Patiala have selected 18 graduates. The Oriental Bank of Commerce has employed 13 graduates in the same capacity.

Mawana Sugar Mills and Sulphur Mills have engaged five graduates each. Nine others were offered placements by five private sector companies. Mother Dairy also invited 14 graduates for interviews today.

HAU officials, however, said veterinary graduates were in great demand overseas and they preferred jobs abroad. There was such a great demand for these professionals overseas that even though medical graduates had to qualify a test for seeking employment abroad, there was no such requirement for veterinarians. As many as 60 graduates pass out every year from the College of Veterinary Sciences and most of them land up with lucrative job offers abroad.

The recent placements have given a ray of hope to agricultural graduates most of whom found themselves without jobs after the demand for qualified persons in state Agriculture Department and the university dwindled over the years.

For more than two decades after the university came into being, its graduates were either employed as agricultural development officers in the state Agriculture Department or found jobs in the university itself, but over the years these opportunities had dwindled leading to a serious job crunch.

Chandigarh, April 15
A dispute over technicalities between two Haryana universities has left over 250 students in the lurch.

These students had been admitted to the M.Phil course offered by the Distance Education Centre of Choudhry Devi Lal University, Sirsa, last year. They were to sit for examination in June next. Among other things, they were required to submit a dissertation. The Sirsa university had approved a list of teachers, from whom the students could seek guidance for their dissertation work. The list also contained names of certain teachers on the rolls of Kurukshetra University (KU), Kurukshetra.

Unaware of the university rules, the students started their dissertations under KU teachers. Midway of their course, KU notified that under its rules, no teacher on its rolls could guide any student of enrolled with some other university.

The Sirsa university then cancelled the admission of over 250 students and returned their fee after deducting a token money for the study material already sent to them.

The affected students say the Sirsa university should have given them an option to change their guides instead of cancelling their admissions, which would result in wastage of their one year.

They also point out that in the past KU teachers had been guiding students of other universities, some of which have a dubious reputation. The university authorities, they say, never raised any objection. Since the Sirsa university did not have proper faculty, it was allowing teachers of other universities to guide its students. 

Charkhi Dadri (Bhiwani), April 15
The local Kedarnath Aggarwal Institute of Management celebrated its 12th annual prize distribution function here today.On the occasion 75 students were awarded for their achievements in academics and co-curricular activities.

Prof R.A. Yadav, vice-chairman, ICTE, New Delhi, was the chief guest, Dr C.M. Lamba, director,ONGC, the special guest and J.P. Aggarwal, chairman, Shivalik Global Ltd and Major Nirpender Singh Sangwan, MLA, Charkhi Dadri, were guests of honour.

Former MP and freedom fighter Ram Krishan Gupta presided over the function.

Ashok Kumar Gupta, general secretary, KAIM, Supriya Dhillon, additional director,Mange Ram, advocate, Tilak Jain and J.S. Mor were also present. Various cultural activities were also presented.

Chandigarh, April 15
To usher a corruption-free government, Haryana is encouraging people to seek the help of state vigilance bureau to nab officials demanding bribe. But despite repeated assurance to nab the guilty and protect the whistleblowers, two years later the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government does not find many takers for its endeavour.

The state vigilance bureau has so far managed to nab a few lower rung officials, while corruption at the senior level goes undetected.

“No one wants to come out openly to complain against any official out of the fear of reprisal. The low conviction rate, leading to the reinstatement of the officials, has dissuaded people from coming forward and complain,” says a Haryana official.

The bureau has, on the other hand, made it very simple for people to lodge a complaint. It can be lodged online on the State Vigilance Bureau website from the comfort of one’s home or through written complaints, typed or handwritten that can be sent to Director, State Vigilance Bureau in Sector 6, Panchkula.

A senior official said, “We encourage the people to get a corrupt official nabbed red handed. This resulted in a better conviction and in many cases dismissal from service.”

Explaining the procedure, he said the currency notes, already numbered, were powdered with an invisible powder and the moment the official accepted the bribe, the vigilance team nabbed him/her. The accused’s hands were then dipped in water and if the colour of water changed to pink, it was proved that he had taken the powdered currency notes.

The State Vigilance recommended that a person, who wanted to lodge a complaint, should contact the vigilance officer of the area concerned on telephone or meet him in his office. The vigilance officer would take further steps to conduct raid after completing necessary formalities and nab the culprit while accepting bribe.

The complainant was required to furnish the name, designation, department and location along with the nature of the complaint. Also the complainant’s name, address and contact phone numbers were required.

Vigilance Police Stations have been setup in the state to deal with cases pertaining to specific jurisdiction. The SP Vigilance at Panchkula deals with cases from Panchkula and Yamunanagar districts.

The DIG Ambala has jurisdiction in Ambala, Kaithal and Kurukshetra district, while SP Rohtak looks after Rohtak, Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat and Jhajjar. The SP Hisar has jurisdiction in Hisar, Sirsa, Jind, Bhiwani and Fatehabad. The SP Gurgaon looks after Gurgaon, Faridabad, Narnaul, Rewari and Mewat.

Kaithal, April 15
The District Consumer Redressal Forum has directed the CMO, a staff nurse, the district collector and Oriental Insurance Company to jointly pay Rs 60,000 as compensation to a woman who delivered a child in spite of a family planning operation.

In a complaint filed with the forum, Kamlesh, wife of Ram Dhari of Budha Khera village, alleged that she had undergone a family planning operation at the local civil hospital on October 4, 2000. However, she gave birth to a female child on March 17, 2003.

She had to suffer mental agony as a result of the birth of this unwanted child. Moreover, her family will have to incur huge expenses on bringing up the child.

She said she knocked at the doors of the authorities to get compensation, but in vain. Finally, she filed a complaint with the forum.

Ambala, April 15
Ambala subdivisional magistrate Mukesh Ahuja today began an inquiry into allegations of financial irregularities levelled against municipal council Ambala Sadar president Neelam Sharma.

MC president Neelam Sharma as well as the councillors who had levelled corruption charges against her met the SDM today.

Neelam Sharma has asked for a copy of the charges made against her. “I had sought 15 days to respond to the charges. However, I was informed by the SDM that the inquiry has to be completed by April 17 and hence I will have to submit my reply by tomorrow,” she said. She said the allegations levelled against her are baseless.

The councillors who have made the allegations said there had been irregularities in works carried out under Section 35 which is meant for carrying out work under emergency provisions. They said the works should have been sanctioned by the House and there was no such emergency which could have prompted the MC president to use Section 35.

The councillors claimed that there had were other irregularities which needed to be thoroughly probed. They demanded that Neelam Sharma should be removed from the post so that inquiry could be carried out without any prejudice.

SDM Ambala is expected to check records at the municipal council Ambala Sadar office tomorrow.