Chandigarh, June 25
Haryana is setting up a regulatory body with quasi-judicial and arbitrary powers to safeguard the financial interests of the micro, small and medium enterprises in the state.

The move will strengthen the financial backbone of the various enterprises involved in job work or manufacturing with small personal investments.

The body will be called the Haryana Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council and be empowered by the Haryana Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council Rules, 2007 that provide for various inputs for proper and judicious implementation of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Act, 2006.

Haryana becomes one of the first few states in the country to form this body, obligatory under the Act, that will directly respond to small manufacturers by addressing their problems and issues that arise in the shape of a dispute with suppliers or ancillary partners. The formation of the council has been notified and it will be in place within the next few weeks.

The council will mainly deal with delayed payments of small manufacturers, who will be free to approach the council if their payments have been withheld by their business partners for over 90 days. The council will have quasi-judicial powers and its decisions will be binding on the parties involved in the dispute.

Even if any of the party wishes to challenge the decision of the council, it would first have to deposit 75 per cent of the awarded sentence money before the case can go to a civil court. The rules with which the council will be empowered will help many micro and small enterprises from shutting down on account of financial crunch by ensuring flow of cash.

The council will be chaired by the director, industries and commerce, and will have four members. These will be the general manager, Haryana Financial Corporation, company secretary, HSIIDC, president of an industries association in Haryana and technical expert from the Department of Industries.

No member other than the chairman will hold the office for more than two years. The government will have the power to remove a member if he or she abstains from the meeting of the council for three consecutive times. The council is expected to meet at least once a month.

The council will be empowered to decide which party shall have to pay the cost, the amount of cost and the manner in which it is to be paid by passing specific orders on case to case basis. The council will have the powers to itself act as an arbitrator or refer it to an institution for arbitration in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996.

Chhachhrouli, June 25
Congress ‘rebel’ MP Kuldeep Bishoni today scored a political victory over his critics when Congress MLA from Indri (Karnal) showed up at the Bishnoi’s rally here today.

Bishnoi announced that more MLAs would show up at his rallies to be held in near future.

The working president of the HPCC, Dr Ram Parkash, had announced yesterday at the same venue that no MLA or senior Congress leaders were with Bishnoi.

“Despite the hot and humid weather, the sheer turnout at the rally shows that the public of Haryana has faith in Bhajan Lal and me,” claimed Bishnoi, while addressing a press conference at the house of former INLD leader Mahipal in Bhagwangarh village, after the rally.

During the conference he did not hide his intention to become the Chief Minister of the state and said he would eliminate corruption when he would become the CM.

“I have been in politics for the past 15 years and if people want me to become the CM, I will gladly honour their wish,” he said.

Indri MLA Ramesh Kamboj said Bhajan Lal was his political ‘guru’ and Bishnoi was a great leader.

The showing up of Kamboj at the rally was seen as a political ‘victory’ after it was reported that MLA from Jind, Mange Ram Gupta, had shifted his ‘loyalty’ from the Bhajan Lal camp to that of Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

However, Bishoni said Gupta was just like his father, adding that majority of MLAs were with him and they would stand by him in times of trouble.

On the question of presidential elections he said: “I will be voting as per my conscious and advising the same to others.”

Regarding his meeting with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, Bishnoi said it was a courtesy call and he had gone to congratulate her.

Earlier speaking at the rally attended by more than 5,000 persons, Bishoni assailed the opposition for setting up SEZ at the cost of livelihood of farmers. “I will not let Reliance to lay even a single brick at Gurgoan’s proposed SEZ,” said Bishnoi.

The rally was organised by Mahipal, who had earlier unsuccessfully contested for Chhachhrouli Assembly seat twice on INLD ticket.

Like his previous 38 public meetings, this time again he lashed out at Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and blamed him for ‘worsening’ law and order situation in 
the state.

He said: “I will announce my own political party (if the public so desires) at my 90th public rally to be held at Rohtak soon.”

Karnal, June 25
A 10-year-old girl was crushed to death on the spot while three others, including Tribune photo journalist Pradeep Tiwari, sustained injuries when a speeding Haryana Roadways bus and a truck crushed the car they were travelling in at Taraori bus stand, near here, today morning.

Apoorva Pandey, niece of The Tribune lensman, died on the spot while Tiwari, his wife Manisha and his nephew Ayush sustained minor injuries.

He was driving down from New Delhi to his residence in Chandigarh. The accident took place at 11 am.

Tiwari said the reckless driver of the bus (HR-45-7313) suddenly applied brakes after overtaking his car in a zigzag way near the bus stand.

After the car was hit by the bus, a speeding truck (HR-38-Q-9535) rammed into the vehicle from the rear side thus causing immense damage to the car.

Local residents had to smash the windowpanes and broke open doors of the car to rescue all four persons, as the car was badly crushed between the two speeding heavy vehicles on the GT road.

Manisha had sustained head injuries but is stated to be out of danger.

The district police chief said drivers of the truck and the bus had been arrested.

Sonepat, June 25
INLD supremo and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala today said that Congress policies in the country after independence had ruined the rural economy which had rendered rural youths jobless. The number of rural artisans which used to be one third of the rural population had been forced to quit their traditional work as there were no takers for their products.

Chautala while addressing a public meeting here today, said rural population was self-reliant earlier as barter system fulfilled the requirements of this working class which was called as backwards. But after liberalisation policies, their occupation had been taken over by the technically advanced urban businessman, which had made the rural economy dependent on the cities.

Criticising the Special Economic Zone(SEZ) policy, the former Chief Minister said said that the advent of big businessmen in the retail market would not only ruin the small traders but the farmers would also be reduced to farm labourers on their own land as their land was being acquired far below the market prices.

He also cast apprehensions over alleged degrading of the constitutional posts like the President, the Prime Minister and the Election Commission as people were being handpicked to head these posts by the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Chautala claimed that the emergence of third front under the banner of United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) would prove crucial for the Indian politics in the days to come as the people were fed up with the rules of the Congress and BJP governments.

Later talking to mediapersons, Chautala said that BSP’s experiment of caste equations would not succeed in Haryana as electorate here was not under caste influence like in UP and Bihar.

Sirsa, June 25
A four-year-old girl today died due to abject poverty as her parents, labourers, working in a brick-kiln, allegedly were not paid their dues by the contractor for a month. Anita was brought from Singhpura of Kalanwali by her parents when her condition deteriorated at the civil hospital but was declared brought dead by the doctors.

Labourers gathered outside the hospital and said that Anita and her parents did not have proper meals since June 1, as the contractor did not pay the weekly allowance to the labourers to run their household. This is not a condition of just one family but a total of 11 families of brick-kiln labourers comprising 60 members. Almost all hailed from Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, who have been working for the past eight months facing abject poverty. The police has registered a case against the brick-kiln owner under Section 304-A in Singhpura police chowki after recording the statement of the father of the deceased girl and other labourers.

Aggrieved father of the deceased girl, Mahender Pal, while narrating the tale of woes to The Tribune at the hospital said that they had not been able to get proper meals for the past three weeks, as the contractors had not paid us any allowance. “When my daughter fell sick, I could not get her medicines and was unable to take her to a doctor as I did not have money for her treatment. Only yesterday her condition worsened and when we brought her to the hospital at last, she was declared brought dead, ” he added.

“We had told our plight to the senior officials but nothing happened. We had submitted a complaint about the non-payment of our dues to the deputy commissioner on June 14. The DC had marked the complaint to the District Food and Supplies Department for further action as this department issued permits to the brick-kiln owners. But it did not yield any result,” he complained.

“Under the agreement the owner had to pay Rs 194 for 1000 bricks. But the owner refused to pay, adding that he would pay only Rs 150 for 1000 bricks. When the labourers raised objection, they were not paid even their weekly allowance in June to meet their daily needs,” said the union leader of brick-kiln labourers, Avtar Singh. The post-mortem examination report revealed that the girl died of illness.

Hisar, June 25
Haryana Agricultural University today released its Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy.

The policy entitles the faculty and students engaged in research to earn incentives on their intellectual property under various acts, including patent and copyright acts.

A spokesperson for the university said the idea of framing the IPR policy was conceived last year.

He said the new policy would not only provide the teachers and researchers the opportunity to earn from their research but would also motivate them for developing cutting edge technologies. This could bring about a qualitative change in Haryana’s agriculture and would make it globally competitive.

He clarified that the IPR policy would not affect the farmers, as no royalty would be charged from them on any technology of direct relevance to them. Instead, they would be extended all help in getting crop varieties and technologies developed by them protected under the Protection of Plant Variety Act.

The spokesperson said the HAU would create awareness about patent rights among faculty of agricultural institutes in the country. For this three workshops would be conducted in different states in September with the collaboration of the Michigan State University of America and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

He revealed that under the new policy the university would sign a letter of intent with a private sector seed agency, which would help in developing hybrid varieties of mustard.

Kaithal, June 25
Naveen Jindal, MP, has said he was making efforts to set up an international standard training institute at Kurukshetra to provide training to youth in various trades so that they could get better employment opportunities.

He stated this while addressing a press conference here last night.

The industrialist-turned-politician said his father late Om Parkash Jindal, who had set up big industries in various parts of the country during his life time had a dream to open new avenues of employment for the youth. Now he wanted to fulfill his dream.

To achieve this object it was very important to provide proper training to youth and sharpen their skill so that they could prove their worth in the stiff competition these days.

He said there was shortage of skilled workforce in the country and many big industries had been set up in the state in the recent years. In the near future more such industries were expected to be set up. In such a situation there would be steep increase in demand for the skilled workforce in Haryana and elsewhere in the country and if we could provide them training of high standards it would help them in getting good jobs not only in the country but also abroad. Jindal regretted that some politicians with ulterior motives were trying to politicise this issue and creating obstacles in his efforts.

The MP said during his current tenure record number of development works had taken place in the entire Kurukshetra parliamentary constituency, which was spread over three districts of Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Yamunanagar. He said besides other development works his main priority was to provide toilet facilities in the entire urban and rural areas so that the people specially the women did not have to go in the open to answer call of nature. He said it was really a matter of shame for us that majority of our population still had no proper toilet facilities in villages and urban slums. He said the Om Parkash Gramin Jan Kalyan Sansthan was also playing an important role in providing this facility to the people.

The MP said besides development works he had launched a special campaign to provide proper health facilities to the people and for this purpose mobile vans with doctors and supporting staff and medicines had been put on service. Hundreds of free medical and eye checkup camps had been organised.

Chandigarh, June 25
The Haryana government has arranged cash credit of Rs 12.5 crore for 2,475 dairy farmers during this year at an interest rate of 8 per cent for the purchase of 5,000 milch animals under the white card scheme.

Minister of state for cooperation Meena Mandal said the present state government had introduced the scheme under which white cards were issued to those dairy farmers, who had been regularly selling their milk to the dairy cooperative societies during summers and winters for the past three years.

She said the cardholders were offered Rs 1 lakh loan each without collateral security for the purchase of milch animals at 8 per cent rate of interest.

The members of dairy cooperative societies were also insured for Rs 1 lakh against death or disability in accidents.

The minister said an elaborate action plan had been drafted for the current financial year, which envisaged milk procurement average to reach 5.5 lakh litres per day as compared to 4.6 lakh litres per day of previous year.