Chandigarh, July 20
What the media failed to do, Sonia Gandhi has done. She has goaded the Haryana Government to move against illegal and irregular mining in the state.

Sonia has written to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that she had seen certain media reports about the illegal mining, particularly in the forest area. Expressing her concern she asked him to take steps to protect ecology.

Following this missive from the AICC President, the state government has moved swiftly against the illegal mining. Principal Secretary to Chief Minister M.L. Tayal last evening chaired a meeting of senior officers of various departments to decide steps to put a check on the illegal mining. Among those who attended the meeting were Financial Commissioner Irrigation R.N. Prashar; Chairman of the Pollution Control Board D.S. Dhesi; and Financial Commissioner Forests H.C. Disodia, besides Director Mining D.R. Dhingra.

Sources say a reply will be soon sent to Sonia.

Though the reply may detail the steps being taken by the government to check illegal mining or even may deny that the media reports in this regard were false or exaggerated, it will definitely not mention that at least two MPs of the ruling party are also involved in such activities.

After the Supreme Court banned the mining in Gurgaon and Faridabad districts a few years ago, the huge demand for construction material in Delhi, particularly in view of the metro project, is being met from Haryana and Rajasthan areas. That rules of safe mining as well as safe transportation are being flouted ruthlessly is no secret.

It was decided at yesterday's meeting that the Irrigation, Forest and Mining Departments should conduct a survey of the areas where the mining can be done and where it cannot be. But, somehow, perhaps inadvertently, instructions were not issued to the transport authorites to come down heavily on those vehicles which carry construction material three or even four times their capacity.

Sources say if the government checks overloading of trucks carrying construction material seriously, the illegal mining would automatically come down considerably. Moreover, the Taxation Department should depute special teams to check the actual production of the lease holders to check not only the heavy evasion of tax but also to find out the actual production.

The Environment Management Plan was also made mandatory for the new mining leases if the area allotted to them exceeded five hectares. After the rule came into force, the state government auctioned mining areas of a little less than 5 hectares, obviously to beat the Central rules. It speaks volumes about the government's commitment to preserve ecology.

Sirsa, July 20
In a report sent to the state government about Ghokna Wali clash that took place between Sikhs and dera followers, it has been stated that the police and the administration were not intimated about the dera chief’s visit in advance. In a short notice just a day before the evening, the dera had informed it about the visit of the dera chief. The district administration had already warned the dera not to hold its religious discourse in sensitive areas. Despite it, the dera chief went there.

Besides it, the dera chief had to reach the village at about 8 am but he reached there much late at about 1 pm. These were the reasons, the clash that took place could not be controlled in time, the report says. The police has also suspended the SHO of the area concerned, Punjab Singh, for his inability to avert the clash between the two groups.

It is learnt that the centre government had asked the state government to submit a report over the whole incident.

In a report submitted by the SP to the state government it was further stated that the dera chief’s vehicle was not attacked in the incident but out of nearly 55 vehicles in the convoy of the dera chief, last 10 vehicles suffered damage by pelting of the stones.

Taking serious not of the incident, later, DGP R.S Dalal and ADGP V.B Singh had also visited the sensitive areas to review the situation.

Besides it, Sikh protesters who were staging dharna outside the police station for the release of the Sikhs, ended their agitation late night.

Reacting to the release of persons rounded up by the police, the dera action committee alleged that three Sikhs persons were released by the police under pressure.

Fatehabad, July 20
Sikh organisations today resented the arrest of three persons in a case of rioting and unlawful assembly registered against them on July 12 while they were marching towards the "nam charcha ghar" at Ratia to prevent the dera followers do their prayers.

In an early morning swoop today, the police arrested Paramjit Singh and Gurmeet Singh from village Aherwan near here and Jagir Singh from Ratia town.

The police pounced on them in the wee hours while they were still sleeping and produced them before the judicial magistrate, Ratia Ajay Aggarwal, who sent them to judicial custody for 14 days. The three were among the 250 Sikhs, who were booked by the police in the wake of protests against "naam charcha" by dera followers on July 12 at Ratia and were among the seven persons who were specifically named in the police FIR.

The police had booked them under Sections 148, 149, 153-A, 186, 295, 341 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code for rioting, unlawful assembly, promoting enmity between two groups, obstructing public servant from discharge of duty, defiling place of worship, wrongful restrain and disobedience of prohibitory orders promulgated by the authorities respectively. Irked at the arrests, a large number of Sikhs assembled at Aherwan gurdwara today to protest against the police action.

Later, representatives of the Sikhs led by Joginder Singh Aherwan, State President of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Mohinder Singh Wadhwa, general secretary of the Haryana Akali Dal (Amritsar) met the SP Saurabh Singh and demanded release of the three after cancellation of cases against all the accused.

Chandigarh, July 20
The Haryana government has recommended premature retirement for two directly recruited IPS officers of the state.

The names of Rajeev Sagar Sharma, an IPS officer of the 1977 batch, and Sanjay Bhatia of the 1986 batch have been sent to the Centre for invoking the special provision to enforce retirement on them.

While officers from the 1977 batch have attained the rank of ADGP, Sharma, who has a chequered career, has got stuck as an SP. He is now posted with the Haryana police at Chandigarh as the SP, home guards.

Bhatia earned notoriety when he was found guilty by the court of providing a false caste certificate to claim the benefit of reservation. Bhatia, who has since appealed in a higher court against the order, is currently posted as a commandant of the Haryana Armed Police.

Both officers recently attained the age of 50, following which the mandatory review of their careers were undertaken by the state government. It was decided to discontinue with their services.

Earlier, the Hooda-led government had sent the names of three IAS officers to the Centre to subject these officers to the provision of compulsory retirement from service after reaching the age of 50 years.

The Centre okayed the proposal with regard to Umesh Nanda while the proposals relating to the other two have been kept pending.

The names of Sharma and Bhatia, the two IPS officers facing the axe, came up in a meeting of the departmental promotion committee (DPC) of IPS officers held here yesterday.

Headed by the chief secretary, the DPC did the inevitable by deciding against promoting these two officers to the rank of DIG.

S.K. Jain, a direct recruit officer of the 1991 batch, was also denied promotion to the post of DIG in yesterday’s meeting.

Promotions of Balbir Singh, SP, Panchkula, M.S. Malik, SP, Jind and Rajbir Deswal, SP, Vigilance, Gurgaon, to DIG’s rank was okayed.

It was also decided to give pro rata promotion as DIG to A.K. Roy, who is currently posted with the CRPF.

Rewari, July 20
The Narnaul police has arrested the deputy general manager (DGM) of Rewari division of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), Darshan Lal Hansu, and junior engineer of Mahendergarh subdivision of the DHBVN Manoj Kumar on charges of corruption.

They were yesterday produced in the court of chief judicial magistrate Mewa Singh at Narnaul, who remanded them to judicial custody for 14 days.

A case of corruption under Section 13-C of the Prevention of the Corruption Act was registered at the Mahendergarh police station against D.L. Hansu, then SDO of Mahendergarh subdivision of the DHBVN as well as Manoj on September 29, 2006.

Later, Hansu was promoted to the post of the DGM and transferred to Rewari.

Officials of the CID after a secret inquiry found that the two DHBVN officials were guilty of colluding with the owner of an oil factory of Mahendergarh in pilferage of power on a hefty scale.

The Chief Minister’s flying squad conducted a probe, which established the veracity of the CID officials’ enquiry following which the above case of corruption was registered against the two.

However, things went awry when the investigation officer of the case, M.S. Bhatti, DSP, Mahendergarh, reportedly gave a clean chit to the two erring officials and recommended cancellation of the FIR registered against them.

The authorities then ordered another high-level inquiry, which now led to the arrest of the two officials.

Gurgaon, July 20
The BPO industry, based mainly in metros, struggling to maintain stability in manpower, is now finding space in interiors of the country to check high increase in annual attrition rate of employees.

In a recent survey conducted by NASSCOM, it was found the attrition rate of in BPOs was around 42 per cent in the US, which is highest in the world whereas it has touched nearly 30 to 40 per cent in India. The global attrition rate was 24 per cent at present.

Experts said the reason behind the high rate of attrition was that people did not view career in BPO sector on long term basis. Besides, they preferred to shift frequently from one organisation to another to get higher salary package and for having more experience and education.

The experts believe that such high rate of attrition will not only affect the quality of work but also create serious problem of skilled manpower shortage.

Vinayak Grover, executive director, Competent Synergies, says as compared to the metro or semi-metro cities, the BPO industry gets more stable and qualified manpower in tier II cities of the country.

While referring to his BPO in Shimla, he says the attrition rate in that area is around 3 to 4 per cent annually. The primary reason is the easy availability of jobs in own hometown and shorter distance between residence and office.

He adds that as the ratio of the attrition is increasing in BPO hubs like Gurgaon and Bangalore, the industry prefers to set up its own infrastructure in states like Himachal Pradesh, preferably in Manali, Shimla and even in a city like 
Chandigarh.

Deepak Malik, executive vice-president, Info Vision, says the attrition ratio is on the rise in the BPO industry as some other related industries such as airlines and retailing have the demand of similar manpower. They prefer to have the expert manpower of BPO.

Samir Chopra, president of the Business Processor Industry Association of India, says that around 60 per cent of the youth who join the industry have poor academic knowledge and average performance in work.

The companies are planning to frame a programme for the rural youth to impart them training according to the requirement of the industry and employ them at the nearest location of their hometowns, he adds.

Ambala, July 20
In the general house meeting of the Municipal Council, Ambala Sadar, held today, municipal councillors demanded that municipal funds must be equally distributed in all wards and there should not be any favouritism.

Councillors opined that equitable distribution of funds was not taking place and certain wards were not being provided adequate funds for development works.

Executive officer Pratap Singh said contractors, who carried out work with municipal funds, were unwilling to undertake more work till the previous bills were cleared. However, development works under grants were going on without any hindrance.

The councillors stated that the contractors, who were not undertaking work through municipal funds, should be blacklisted. However, it was later suggested that a contractor should be allowed to work under grants only if he was carrying out work under municipal funds satisfactorily.

Municipal councillor Suresh Garg said the committe had received a sum of Rs 13 lakh from BSNL for road cuts and the money should be properly utilised for the purpose it had been received. But, the executive officer said the money had been earmarked for settlement of retirement dues.

The councillors strongly opposed the manner of utilisation of funds and they demanded that a separate account of road cuts should be created and the money received under this head should be immediately put to use for repairing road cuts, otherwise road cuts could cause extensive damage to the roads over a period of time.

Councillor Hira Lal Yadav said there was complete lack of development in the Ambala Sadar area and cleanliness efforts were not taking place.

Chandigarh, July 20
The Haryana Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation has set a target to provide financial assistance to 17,000 beneficiaries belonging to Scheduled Castes in the state during the current financial year so as to enable them to take up self employment ventures for their socio-economic uplift.

While stating this here today, a spokesman of the corporation said 442 such beneficiaries have been given financial assistance of over Rs 1.47 crore so far during the year and it included Rs 39.19 lakh as subsidy, Rs 99.16 lakh as bank loan and Rs 8.76 lakh as margin money.

The areas for which the financial assistance was given included dairy farming, sheep rearing, pig farming, purchase of jhota buggi or camel cart, industrial sector and for trade and business.

He said according to the target set for the current financial year, a maximum number of 1,400 beneficiaries would be benefited in Hisar district followed by 1,250 in Sirsa, 1,200 in Faridabad, 1,175 in Bhiwani, 1,100 in Karnal, 1,050 in Yamunanagar as well as Ambala, 925 in Fatehabad, 850 in Kaithal, 750 in Rohtak, 700 in Kurukshetra, 650 each in Gurgaon, Jhajjar and Panipat districts, 600 in Rewari, 550 in Mahendergarh, 300 in Panchkula and 225 in Mewat. 

Ambala, July 20
The Rotary Club, Ambala Central, organised its installation ceremony at Ambala City today. Deputy commissioner R.P. Bhardwaj was the chief guest.

Naresh Agarwal took over the charge of new president of the club for the year 2007-2008. Rakesh Makar handed over the charge of the club to him.

While addressing the Rotarians, Bhardwaj said the Rotary Club was a social organisation offering its services in various countries. It had done remarkable work to create awareness against social evils. Raj Kamar Grewal, S.K. Garg and S.C. Manocha were also present on this occasion. Several former office-bearers of the club were also honoured by the chief guest.