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Mafia money may be fuelling
real estate boom
Custody row ends in scribe, son’s death
INLD charges against Congress baseless: HPCC
Palace on Wheels to touch Pinjore
Residents lock up power office
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Sikhs assemble at Ratia
Naam charcha: Govt prohibits dera followers
Govt to observe ‘Save electricity year’
BSNL officers, employees observe strike
Septuagenarian gets 12-year RI
Nine killed as cab hits tree
One killed, two injured in road mishap
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Mafia money may be fuelling
real estate boom
Chandigarh, July 11 A senior official of the Haryana Town and Country Planning said initially the money was being pumped into Haryana through non-resident Indians (NRI) in the form of investment, but of late several dubious companies and non-Haryanvis are purchasing land in the State at exorbitant rates. Citing an example of the price rise, a property dealer said earlier only the NCR Region was witnessing a boom in real estate prices. But during the recent past, even small towns and district headquarters throughout the State have seen an unprecedented price rise. Yamunanagar recently saw a two acre land being registered for Rs 26 crore (Rs 13 crore per acre). Senior Indian National Lok Dal
(INLD) leader, Prof Sampat Singh said accusing the government of turning a blind eye to the issue said “it is all in connivance with the officials. Ultimately this will lead to rise in crime. When mafia develops interest in the state, their activities will be seen escalating”. A senior ruling party politician, however, dismissed these allegations saying “Haryana is a very prosperous province; the Chief Minister has during his various visits abroad highlighted the potential of growth of the State as a result of which several NRI are investing in the State. Many people believe that the real estate hike was due to the large number of proposals for Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Haryana has received. The Centre has already cleared about 35 out of the 49 proposals. But intelligence agencies are wondering how the price of property has boomed in places far away from the SEZ. Not willing to disclose much, the officer, however, hinted that the scrutiny was on to see any linkage of the real estate investments in the state with Nepali Maoists, who have been using Haryana as a safe haven and for other underworld presence in the region.real estate boom.
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Custody row ends in scribe, son’s death
Yamunanagar, July 11 Rishu and her husband Janak Raj Bawa had not been on good terms for the past more than a year. However, the immediate cause behind the attack was a row over the custody of their six-month-old baby Krishna, said police sources. The two were married about a year and half ago. Raj Kumar Bawa (53), a reporter of a Hindi daily and his son Jitendra (23) died on the spot. The incident took place around midnight yesterday at the Geeta colony residence of the Bawa family. Sarbjeet Bawa, who owns an evening daily (brother of Raj Kumar) sustained injuries and was fighting for life at a private hospital here. Janak Raj (son of Raj Kumar Bawa), his grandmother Bimla Rani and Narinder Bawa (wife of Sarbjeet Bawa) also sustained serious injuries and were admitted to a private hospital. The Bawa family was having dinner at their residence when the attack took place. Rishu who for the past many days was living at her parents’ house in the bank colony here reached the house at around 11.30 pm. She entered into an altercation with her husband Janak Raj and other members. After sometime she started to leave the house along with her six-month-old baby Krishna. Janak did not let Rishu take the baby away and tried to snatch the baby from her. At this point Rishu made a telephone call to her parents house. In no time family members of Rishu reached the Bawa’s residence in a car and attacked the Bawa family, informed police sources. Sarbjeet Bawa in an effort to save his life scaled a wall of the house but the attackers chased and injured him with swords. Sources said it appeared that the attack was “pre-planned” as Rishu’s family members reached Bawa’s residence in no time after getting a telephone call from her. On the complaint of Janak Raj the police registered a case under Sections 148, 149, 323, 324, 450, 302 and 506 against Rishu, her father Yaspal, mother Praveen, brothers Deepak, Gagan and Dimple. No arrests were made till the time of filing this report. Cremation of the two deceased was held today. SP Ramna said that two special teams had been formed to arrest the culprits. DC Yadav announced a relief of Rs 50,000 to the family besides free medical treatment of the injured. |
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INLD charges against Congress baseless: HPCC
Jhajjar, July 11 Addressing a press conference in the town today, the spokesperson for the HPCC, Ved Prakash Vidrohi, said: “The charges of the INLD leader that Sonia Gandhi has chosen Pratibha Patil to dismiss the present incumbent and then get herself installed as the PM following her ascendancy indicates that how low he has stooped in politics.” The Congress leader said such irresponsible statements showed that Chautala had no regard for democratic values and ideals of politics. Vidrohi stated that it was during the previous regime that the job aspirants had to grease the palms of the powers.
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Palace on Wheels to touch Pinjore
Hisar, July 11 The minister said new tourism complexes would come up at several places in Haryana and the existing tourism complexes would undergo a major makeover with new facilities and better food. A Palace on Wheels train will ply from Delhi to Pinjore via Panipat and Kurukshetra on the same lines as it was operating in Rajasthan. It was expected to become a major tourist attraction both for foreign and domestic tourists. The minister said the new tourism policy which was on the anvil aimed at increasing state revenue through tourism in a big way. New complexes and expansion of existing infrastructure would generate employment. Chaudhary who also holds the forest portfolio said Van Mahotsav would be celebrated all over Haryana from July 15 onwards. During the period thousands of saplings would be planted. Expressing concern over global warming due to environmental pollution she said planting sapling was the solution to the problem. She said she had directed that in case trees had to be cut down for widening roads or urbanisation activities, saplings twice the number of trees cut down should be immediately planted there. The minister visited Nalwa village to participate in a meeting organised there to pay homage to late Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar. She described the former prime minister as a “saint politician” and recalled that he was a classmate of her late father-in-law Bansi Lal. |
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Residents lock up power office
Yamunanagar, July 11 The irate villagers staged a dharna outside the office and raised slogans. Gulshan Sahni of Salempur village complained that there was no supply in the area for the past four days resulting in crop damage. The villagers threatened to step up their agitation if the supply was not corrected within two days. |
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Sikhs assemble at Ratia
Fatehabad, July 11 Some hardliner Sikh leaders led by Sukhwinder Singh of the Shri Guru Granth Satkaar Sabha addressed a gathering, which had predominantly arrived from the neighbouring villages of the district and Mansa district of Punjab, which is very close to Ratia town. Though a sizeable number of Sikhs continued pouring in at the gurdwara till afternoon today, there was no organized rally as such and people came and left after taking 'langar'. Those who addressed the gathering besides Sukhwinder Singh included Baba Beant Singh of Sirsa, Baba Charat Singh, Taruna Dal, Jathedar Balwinder Singh, Ek Noor Khalsa Dal, and Principal Jasbir Kaur. Most of the speakers said that the sentiments of the Sikhs had been hurt by the postponement of the conclave and exhorted people to express convey their collective feelings to Akal Takht. The speakers alleged that some 'traitors' of the Sikh community had conveyed wrong message to Akal Takht that Ratia conclave could lead to bloodshed while the Sikhswere organising this convention for peaceful expression of their sentiments. |
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Naam charcha: Govt prohibits dera followers
Chandigarh, July 11 Chief secretary Prem Prashant said here today that in case anyone had to do ‘nam charcha’, it might be done at one’s home. The decision had been taken to maintain peace in the area. He said the tense situation had been defused after the proposed Sikh rally, which was scheduled for today, was deferred by the Akal Takht Jathedar. The deputy commissioner of Fatehabad informed the chief secretary that some people had visited the gurdwara at Ratia, but returned after paying obeisance and that situation was normal. Prem Prashant made it clear that no instructions had been issued to prevent the people from visiting the gurdwara at Ratia. The state government was in touch with its Punjab counterpart and the Chief Ministers of both the states too had been discussing the issue with each other, he added. Referring to the on-going hunger strike by some of the followers of the dera, the chief secretary said none of their demands related to Haryana but they concerned Punjab. However, doctors of Haryana were examining medically those on hunger strike and in case of worsening of anyone’s condition, they were being shifted to hospital.
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Govt to observe ‘Save electricity year’
Chandigarh, July 11 Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has written a letter to all MPs, MLAs, presidents of zila parishads and panchayat samitis drawing their attention towards the need to motivate the general public for conserving electricity, timely payment of bills and not to indulge in theft of electricity, which was a social evil. He said adequate power supply to the consumers was not the only solution for the problems relating to the power sector. The power utilities incurred a loss of 43.5 per cent during 2005-06, which included 4.7 per cent transmission losses, 29.5 per cent distribution losses and 9.5 per cent revenue collection losses. It had become necessary to control the situation to avoid further loss. The power utilities had been suffering a loss of about Rs 1 per unit of electricity supplied to the consumers. By bringing down the present AT&C losses by 1 per cent, Rs 80 to Rs 90 crore could be saved. The utilities had initiated many schemes to minimise the losses. These included segregation of tubewell and domestic load of the rural feeders, rehabilitation of overloaded feeders, installation of meters on distribution transformers for energy audit and erection of the high voltage distribution system. Hooda said the government planned to spend Rs 20,000 crore on power generation and Rs 10,000 crore on strengthening the transmission and distribution systems during the 11th plan period. The state had initiated measures to increase generation capacity by 5,000 MW during the next three years. Besides, long-term power purchase agreements had been made. The state had purchased power on rates up to Rs 7.25 per unit to supply adequate power to the consumers. Referring to the electricity bills waiver scheme of Rs 1,600 crore for domestic and tubewell consumers of the rural areas, he said more than 9 lakh consumers had started paying their current bills. The consumers who did not opt for the scheme nor were paying their current bills would face disconnection.
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BSNL officers, employees observe strike
Kaithal, July
11 Circle secretary, AIBSNLEA, Jogi Ram said they went on strike to protest against the inordinate delay in procuring 60 million GSM lines.
He said even after one of the bidders, Motorola, had withdrawn the court case and the BSNL board had approved the report of the Committee for Evaluation of Tenders (CET), the procurement process had not been
expedited. To fight against this attitude of the government and the BSNL management, joint forum of 13 unions of BSNL took a decision to proceed with the strike, he
added. Meanwhile, BSNL services, including customer service and cash collection, were affected due to the
strike.
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Safai karamcharis demonstrate
Ambala, July 11 The protesters raised slogans against the sanitation contractor. They demanded the release of payment on time. They alleged the safai karamcharis employed by the sanitation contractor had not been paid minimum wages for the past five years. They said the wages were released after the intervention of the labour inspector, but now these were not being paid on time.
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Septuagenarian gets 12-year RI
Fatehabad, July 11 Cops from Ratia police station had arrested Jarnail Singh (71) from his agriculture fields at Gandha village with 25 bags of poppy husk on January 21, 2000. The Additional District and Sessions Judge N.P. Dewatt today found the accused guilty of crime and pronounced judgment sending him to jail. |
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Nine killed as cab hits tree
Ambala, July 11 Deputy commissioner RP Bharadwaj and SP Sandeep Khirwar rushed to the spot on learning about the accident. DC Bharadwaj said nine persons died when the maxi cab collided with a tree. "While five persons died at Government Hospital, we have received information that four others died in the PGI, Chandigarh," he said. He said it seemed to be a case of overloading. "I have
issued immediate instructions to the transport department officials to take strict action against over-loading and over-speeding by maxi cabs.” He stated that Red Cross would bear the cost of medical expenses of the accident victims.The maxi cab was reportedly driven at high speed.The passengers were extricated with much difficulty.The seriously injured were rushed to Government Hospital, Naraingarh, from where 15 passengers were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. Four of those referred to the PGI died on the way. four of the deceased have been identified as Rajesh Jain, Om Wati, Ashu and Raghubir Singh. Bhai Kanhaiya Sewa Samiti members rushed the victims from the accident site to Government Hospital. |
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One killed, two injured in road mishap
Ambala, July 11 Virender Kumar, a resident of Bharog village, was riding a motor cycle along with his woman relative and his niece when his vehicle was hit by the car near the village. The three sustained serious injuries and were taken to the Civil Hospital at Ambala City. Later, the female relative, Sunita, succumbed to her injuries. He was taking Sunita to a private doctor for a check-up. The police has registered a case in this regard.
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