Ambala, May 1
As many as 12 leaders of the Congress party and around 50 party workers tendered their resignation in support of Bhajan Lal today. The resignations were sent to party president Sonia Gandhi.

The leaders who resigned from the primary membership of the Congress include Aarti Gauri, president of the Kisan Sangthan of state Congress, Puran Praksh Saini, former vice-president, state Youth Congress, Ashok Baratia, Raj Kumar Sethi, former general secretary, Youth Congress, Gurmail Singh, vice-president district Congress Sewa Dal Panchayati Raj, Paramjit Pammi and B.K. Bali.

Talking to mediapersons, Aarti Gauri and Puran Prakash Saini said several other supporters of Bhajan Lal would soon send their resignations to Sonia Gandhi. Gauri said the Congress could not survive in the state without Bhajan Lal, who had finally decided to leave the party.

She said Sonia Gandhi had lost her credibility among the common man as the UPA government had failed to save the interest of the common man.

When asked whether Deputy CM Chander Mohan would also submit his resignation, she said she was not aware of it.

Chandigarh, May 1
Unregulated mining and the overloading of trucks go hand in hand. Both are in violation of Supreme Court judgements. One of the grounds on which the apex court banned mining in Gurgaon and Faridabad districts, adjoining Delhi, was that the water table in the national capital region was being adversely affected by the mining, even legal.

Sources say that at several places where unregulated mining is on in Yamunanagar, Panchkula and parts of Ambala districts, the sub-soil water has come on the surface. In these districts, since the mining is mostly on the river banks, the water table is comparatively high. The law says that no mining is to be done to the ground water level.

Since the September, 2006, notification says that if the production goes up in the existing mining projects, the lease-holder will have to get an environment management plan (EMP) approved, most of the lease-holders have frozen their production figures by overloading the trucks. Instead of showing the exact weight, the lease-holders issue bills according to the rated capacity of the trucks.

The overloading of trucks was banned by the Supreme Court, which had ruled that even after imposing a composition fee, the overloaded trucks could not be plied. The sources say most of the trucks carrying construction material are loaded two or three times their capacity. This is evident from the bad condition of the roads around the mining zones. The overloaded trucks are a major cause of wear and tear of the roads. It costs the state exchequer Rs 8 crore to Rs 10 crore per km to build a world-class highway.

The mining areas and crusher zones in Panchkula and Yamunanagar districts, the sources say, are located in close proximity to the protected forest areas. Hence, they badly affect the growth of forests. Most of the mining is being done in panchayat as well as private land, where afforestation was done under various projects. Trees and shrubs have been uprooted in these areas. Even the boundaries of the protected forests have been encroached upon.

The Haryana government had cancelled the mining lease in Yamunanagar. But the lease-holder was able to obtain a stay order from a local court because the cancellation order had some defects.

Sources in the forest department say most of the mining zone in Yamunanagar and Panchkula districts falls in the area notified under section 4 of the Punjab land preservation act, 1900. The law says that before cutting a tree in these areas, prior permission of the competent authority is required.

A member of the Haryana environment council, Krishan Nanha, says if a farmer cuts a tree even on his own land, he is challaned. But no action is taken against illegal mining, which is more dangerous for the soil than the cutting of trees. The roots of a fallen tree also save soil from erosion. But water enters the mined areas and erodes the soil.

Nanha says the indiscriminate mining on the river beds is posing a great danger to several bridges. The bridge collapse near Kala Amb, in which four lives were lost, is a classic example of the havoc indiscriminate mining can play with bridges constructed at a cost of crores of rupees, he adds.

He says the indiscriminate mining has badly affected the water table in the Raipur Rani area. He alleges that over the years the mining lobby has become so powerful that no action is taken against its illegal activities.

(To be continued)

Jhajjar, May 1
The controversy over the demand of local MLA Rajender Joon for transfer of the SDM at Bahadurgarh appears to have taken a serious turn with the state government reportedly giving clear indications against any transfer.

The meeting of Joon’s supporters with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Delhi reportedly went sour as the Chief Minister gave clear warning to the MLA's supporters to desist from any untoward action.

Hooda reportedly took them to task. The MLA and his supporters had blocked the Delhi-Rohtak highway for about two hours on Saturday to protest against the SDM and had demanded his immediate transfer.

The incident led to a rift in the local Congressmen as Chatar Singh, who unsuccessfully contested the last Assembly election on Congress ticket from Badli openly came out support of the SDM. His supporters, including about two dozen sarpanches, reportedly called on the son of the Chief Minister, Deepender Hooda, who is also an MP from Rohtak, yesterday to express their feelings.

But the late night meeting of supporters of the MLA with the senior Hooda reportedly finally settled the issue in favour of the SDM. More significantly, after some rumours that the supporters of MLA could gherao the SDM today, heavy police force was deployed in the town. The police also took out a flag march to avoid any such happening. The SDM was also given heavy security at his home and office.

However, Joon, is said to be in Chandigarh today. None of the district officials or the MLA himself was available for comments on this issue.

Ambala, May 1
Scientific instruments manufacturing industry is up in arms over the decision of the pollution control board to shut electroplating units located in Ambala Cantt.

The Ambala Scientific Instruments Manufacturers Association today held a protest over the attempt to disconnect power supply to an electroplating unit.

Association president Ashwani Goyal and general secretary Puneet Gupta said after the power supply to Arjun Electroplating was disconnected officials moved to disconnect power supply to Parkash Electroplating, located near Pul Chameli, but following the protest, they failed to do so.

They said the association would hold a meeting on Wednesday to chart out the future course of action.

The association members said a few days back, the industry had to face a lot of inconvenience when notices were sent to electroplating units.

“Electroplating units are must for our industry, which will be hit if the units at Ambala Cantt are forced to close down,” they said.

Hisar, May 1
The Haryana Private Affiliated Colleges Non-Teaching Employees Union has demanded lifting of a ban on recruitment of non-teaching staff in privately managed aided colleges and implementation of Assured Career Progress Scheme (ACP).

In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, union secretary Sushil Rajpal said the Director, Higher Education, Haryana, had lifted the ban on appointment of teachers in aided colleges. However, the ban on recruitment of non-teaching employees was still in place. Non-teaching employees were part and parcel of any college and efficiency would continue to suffer in the absence of an adequate number of non-teaching employees.

He pointed out that the Centre was going ahead with the Sixth Pay Commission even as anomalies created by the 5th pay panel were yet to be removed. One such anomaly was that non-teaching employees of private affiliated government aided colleges were not given the benefit of ACP even though the same had been extended to every category of government employees.

Chandigarh, May 1
The uttar Haryana bijli vitran nigam (UHBVN) has revised the schedule of power supply with immediate effect.

However, there will be no change in the schedule of power supply to industries and the supply will not be available daily from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Five per cent load of normal consumption will be allowed to these units for lighting purposes.

The UHBVN will supply two-phase power to the villages for two hours in the morning and four hours in the evening during the peak load period. The regulations will be imposed for one hour each on urban and mixed-urban feeders in the morning and evening peak load hours in different time slots.

Consumers getting power supply through agricultural and rural feeders have been divided into two groups for imposing the regulations. In Karnal district the consumers of the first group will get three-phase power supply from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Consumers of the second group will be supplied power from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. In Panipat district power will be supplied from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. to the first group and 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. to the second group.

In the Ambala operation circle comprising Ambala and Panchkula districts the consumers of the first group will get three- phase power supply from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The second group of the circle will get power from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

In the Kurukshetra circle consisting of Kurukshetra and Kaithal districts the consumers of the first group will get power from midnight to 5 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. The second group will get power from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

The first group of tubewell consumers of Sonepat will get power from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The second group will get power from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Consumers of the first group of Yamunanagar will get power from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The second group will get power from 4 a.m. to 5 a.m. and 12 noon to 5 p.m.

The first group of the consumers of Jind district will get power from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The second group will get power from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Consumers of the first group of the operation circle of Rohtak comprising Rohtak and Jhajjar districts will get power from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. The second group will get power from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 

Yamunanagar, May 1 
A whopping 1.22 lakh man hours were lost at the under construction Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram Thermal Power Plant here today as labourers observed May Day and did not report for work. The first unit of this 600 MW thermal plant, to be built at a cost of Rs 2,396 crore, has to be completed by November 20 and the second unit of 300 MW capacity in by February next year. 

As many as 15,000-16,000 labourers work at the project round the clock in three shifts. But today the workers observed Labour Day and did not turn up for work at the site which wore a deserted look. Sources in the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) and Reliance Energy Limited (REL), which is setting up the plant, said no work was carried out at the plant today by labourers. An official of the HPGCL, however, said May 1 is an important day for labourers and they would be returning to work tomorrow.

Panipat, May 1
The Railways' move to demolish a temple built on a "controversial" piece of land near railway crossing on Jatal road was thwarted with the local police's intervention here today.

According to sources, a team led by assistant divisional engineer RK Goyal and comprising section engineer RD Kalyan and RPF inspector Narendra Kumar Dubey today reached Shiv Mandir located at 8 Marla Shakti Nagar and initiated its demolition.While the Railway officials claimed that the temple was built on the Railways land, the temple priest countered their claim stating that it was raised with devotees' donation after purchasing the land.

In the meantime, colony residents, led by district BJP chief Sanjay Bhatia, arrived at the scene and protested against the move. Soon the Model Town SHO also made it to the controversial site and asked the officials to show him the orders regarding the temple's demolition.However, the officials could not come out with a convincing reply on the issue.

Later, it was decided that the land's demarcation will be done by the tehsildar. It was also decided that if demolition was needed, a duty magistrate will be appointed and police aid will be sought for the same.

Meanwhile, sources said a part of the temple's fourwall was already demolished before the police intervened in the matter.

Ambala, May 1
Chief post master General, Haryana circle, Prithvi Raj Kumar today gave away prizes to postal employees for their outstanding performance in the field of the rural postal life insurance and postal life insurance.

He said the Haryana circle had achieved second place in the country with its achievement of 96 per cent business target in the premium products segment, which comprised speed post, express parcel post and business post. The circle had achieved business to the tune of Rs 40.42 crore.

In small savings, the circle had about 38 lakh accounts in various categories with outstanding balance to the tune of Rs 9,650 crore. There had been a steady growth in number of accounts during the past three years. There were 32 lakh accounts for year 2005 and in year 2006 it was 35 lakh.

He said iMO, e-post, direct post and logistics post are the new services of the department. iMO had been launched in 26 post offices in the circle while e-Post was available in 170 post offices.

The awardees for 2004-05 include A.D. Arora, B.M. Gupta, P.N. Behl, O.P. Saini, Om Prakash, Bhagwati Parshad, Sudhir Mahajan, Navin Jain and Rajesh Kumar. The awardees for 2005-06 include A.D. Arora, Sudhir Mahajan, Navin Jain, Bhagwati Parshad, Om Prakash, Ram Mehar, B.M. Gupta and P.N. Behl.

In rural postal life insurance, the awardees in different categories include Vijay, Sant Lal, Hira Lal, Mahesh Gandhi, Sardar Singh, Mam Raj, Prithvi Chand, Prem Kumar, Partap Singh, Deepak Kumar Nalvi, Hansraj Musepur and Chander Prakash Patli.