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Khaanak Mine Issue
Panchayati Raj Institutions
Setback for sugar mill
Seven killed in mishaps
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Excavation near Lakhnor Sahib
2 LPG dealers booked for irregularities
Rs 12 cr spent on rural
development in Jind
Two arrested for armed rioting
Information Commissioners
Janhit Cong leader booked for fraud
3 jail officials held for freeing convicts
Residents’ protest leads to SHO’s transfer
Suggestions sought to ‘enrich’ excise policy
Broadband services inaugurated
Register names, photos of passengers, taxi unions told
Steps to boost organic farming
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Khaanak Mine Issue
Bhiwani, December 29 He said letters had been sent to contractors wherein information regarding income tax, sales tax, welfare fund and certain other things had been sought. He said the contractors had not paid Rs 8 crore to the gram panchayat as decided in the lease pact. Meanwhile, finding that the administration was earning a profit after taking over the mines, the contractors have decided to end their differences and run the mines with mutual understanding. The contractors have given their consent regarding this to Karn Singh Godara. The leaseholders of the mines had a dispute and had split into two groups. The dispute led to the situation getting out of hands several times and the administration had to deploy a heavy police force, besides imposing section 144 of the CrPC. On December 25, the administration took over the mines and appointed a receiver. On the first day of operation, the administration earned Rs 16 lakh. Moreover, no unrest was seen during the past four days in the mining area. In the light of these developments, the leaseholders today convened a meeting and decided to work together. They also decided not to interfere in each other’s working. Kunwar Ved Pal, leader of one the warring groups, confirmed this and said the work would be carried out under the leadership of Karn Singh Godara. However, the other group could not be contacted in this regard. Godara said Devender Suti, Pale Ram, Sanjay Gupta, Vedpal Tanwar and Rajpal participated in the meeting. He said another partner, Wazir Lohan, had given his consent over the telephone and now all leaseholders would run the mines together. However, the deputy commissioner said since the decision regarding the mines’ takeover was taken by a court, the contractors would have to come through the court. He said the leaseholders would have to file an appeal with the sessions court. “The contractors will have to reply to letters sent to them,” he said. The administration is operating the mining area since December 25 under its receiver, additional deputy commissioner Wazir Singh Goyat. Meanwhile, despite the compromise between the leaseholders, a press note issued by the administration claimed that section 145 of the CrPC, which had also been imposed, had not been removed and the orders of attachment of property still existed. Sources said finding the tax collection three times more than routine, the administration did not find it appropriate to release the attached land. The sources said delay in filing a reply would attract an FIR against the contractors.
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Panchayati Raj Institutions
Rohtak, December 29 The minister was addressing a gathering of women panchayat representatives after inaugurating the state-level “Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan” here today. The event, sponsored by the department of development and panchayats, was organised by the state community development training centre. Jindal said the campaign would provide a platform for the women panchayat members by finding out effective means to eradicate the social evils which came in way of women empowerment. “You should acquire the confidence to raise your voice against injustice and discrimination,” she urged the women, adding that the participation of women in panchayati raj institutions was must to improve their lot. The minister maintained that the women of the entire state would be joined in the campaign and a convention would be held in April. Enlisting the achievements of the state government, Jindal asserted that it was for the first time that so many panchayats of Haryana had been given Rs 2 lakh cash awards under the Nirmal Gram Yojana by the union government. She pointed out that the government had decided to develop a number of villages of the state as model villages. “These villages will not only get concrete roads and streets, but also other amenities and facilities on the pattern of urban areas,” she added. The director, department of development and panchayats, S.K.Monga, and the local deputy commissioner, R.S.Doon, also addressed the gathering.
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Setback for sugar mill
Chandigarh, December 29 In a blow to the private mill, the Punjab and Haryana High Court here has turned down its plea on giving an interim order in its favour on the state advised price (SAP) of sugarcane. In an order issued last week, the court said it was not possible as an interim measure to pass an order in favour of the petitioner to enable him to pay the farmers at a rate less than SAP. The court said it would take up the case for final disposal on January 29 and added that conclusions drawn in the December 20 order were only tentative and provisional. The private sugar mill, which earlier moved the court to challenge SAP, was quite certain that it was on a strong footing and was pressing for an interim order in its favour. The petitioner had contended that the state government, while determining SAP, had taken into account 40 additional human labour days than what was actually needed for cultivation of cane. It also said the minimum wage of labourers considered for the purpose of fixing SAP was more than what was the minimum wage at the time of sowing of cane. Both contentions were turned down by the court. A division bench of Justices J.S. Khehar and Sham Sunder observed that the methodology of CACP (commission for agricultural costs and prices) adopted by the petitioner to argue his case “would hardly make any difference in the eventual cost of production of sugarcane...” The bench also rejected the private mill’s plea that the quantum and rate of sugarcane seed taken into consideration for determining SAP was in excess of the factual position. The bench also did not find any justification in the petitioner’s plea that the cost component of farmyard manure considered by the government to determine SAP for ratoon crop (when fresh seed is not required) of sugarcane was arbitrary. The court also agreed with the government’s contention that the entire ratoon crop would fail if the field was not properly cultivated by ploughing either by bullocks or tractor. The private mill had argued that there was no justification of including bullock or machinery costs in the case of ratoon crop. The judges also refused to accept the private mill’s plea that the state government’s estimate of yield of sugarcane as 600 quintals per hectare was in variance with the CACP estimate of sugarcane yield as 612.73 quintals per hectare. The judges said the submission by the petitioner on this count “need not be taken seriously” while adjudicating a prayer for an interim direction.
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Seven killed in mishaps
Faridabad,December 29 Three labourers, all from Bihar, died after the wall of an under-construction factory building colllapsed today. The factory, named ECEL of Escorts groups, is being constructed by a private builder. The SDM of Ballabgarh Harishchand Jain said orders had been issued for the registration of a criminal case against the builder in the case. While two of the labourers, Shiv Kumar and Duleep Paswan, were buried alive in the debris, the third victim, Vasudev, succumbed to his injuries later in the local Badshah Khan Civil Hospital. In a separate incident that took place late last night, a three-wheeler and a dumper collided head on near Mujeri village killing four persons on the spot. Six others sustained serious injuries in the accident. The three-wheeler was on way to Tiagaon village when it collided head on with the dumper. The deceased who have been so far identified are Sunil, Omvir and Rajbeer. The injured have been identified as Dharampal, Premvati, Sarvati, Pawan, Tekraj and Satvir. The injured and those who died in the accident belonged to nearby villages. The driver of the three-wheeler was also among those killed. |
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Excavation near Lakhnor Sahib
Ambala, December 29 The room, at the depth of about 25 feet, was found during excavation work being carried out near the gurdwara by the managing committee. Lakhnor Sahib is a historical religious place where Guru Gobind Singh had spent the initial years of his life as his mother, Mata Gujri, hailed from this village. The devotees are of the view that the room was around 500 years old and had been constructed by the maternal grandfather and grandmother of Guru Gobind Singh. Now the devotees have started the reconstruction of this room. A large number of Sikhs have been coming here to have a look at the historical room. A copper sword, apparently made in 1804, was also found from the house of a villager, Harpreet Singh, while he was digging the foundation of a room close to the gurdwara. A wooden bed, sword and a copper plate which was used by Guru Gobind Singh in his childhood, are kept safe in this gurdwara. A well from which Mata Gujri used to collect water is still existing near the gurdwara. According to believers a number of diseases are cured by drinking the water of this well. Every year on the occasion of Gurpurb thousands of devotees from various states come to visit this gurdwara.
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2 LPG dealers booked for irregularities
Fatehabad, December 29 The cases have been registered under Sections 7, 10, 55 of the Essential Commodities Act on the report of food and supplies department. The police action follows public outcry against the functioning of these gas agencies. LPG consumers had organised protests and even staged a dharna against the scarcity of gas created by the dealers. They had also accused the gas dealers of highhandedness and indecent behaviour with consumers. On the directions of the deputy commissioner, O.P. Sheoran, the additional deputy commissioner, C.G. Rajnikanthan has begun a probe in the black-marketing of LPG in the district. Rajnikanthan has also taken records of Tohana-based gas dealer Mukul Gas Agencies after finding gross irregularities in the stocks of the dealer. Talking to The Tribune, Rajnikanthan said the district administration had been receiving complaints of erratic supply of LPG for the past few days. The LPG consumers had alleged that some gas dealers in connivance with black marketeers, had been diverting the supply meant for domestic consumers to commercial consumers. He said, on the directions of the deputy commissioner, he inspected the records of Mukul Gas Agency at Tohana and found gross irregularities in the records. The dealer had shown 27,000 consumers in his records, but it appeared that many of those were fake consumers. He said the data base of all gas agencies of the district had now been summoned by his office and he would get a door-to-door survey of the district conducted to find out fake consumers in the records of the gas agencies.
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Rs 12 cr spent on rural
development in Jind
Jind, December 29 It had received a total amount of about Rs 15.30 crore in the period under various heads. Around 75 per cent of the population lives in the rural areas in the district. As per the details available from the office of the DRDA here the highest amount of funds that had been at the disposal of the agency had been under the ‘Sampooran Gramin Rozgar Yojna’ (SGRY) in which a total amount of Rs 4.02 crore was spent on generation of employment opportunities in the district. While the union government provided an amount of Rs 3.37 crore, the share of the state government had been around Rs 1.12 crore. A total of Rs 469.99 lakh was at the disposal of the district administration. It helped to generate about 2.75 lakh workdays during the period ending November 30 this year. The works under the scheme include construction and development of community projects like roads, community centres, chaupals, anganwadi centres and metalling of village lanes. The second important ongoing project had been of the ‘Total Sanitation Campaign’ (TSC) under which the agency had a budget of around Rs 5.12 crore. Besides creation of general awareness regarding the importance of cleanliness in and around the residential areas, the government has been providing a financial help of about Rs 1,200 to each family for the construction of toilets in the rural parts. At least 18654 BPL families have been given the aid so far under the scheme. The Haryana Pollution Control Board has also released an amount of Rs 50 lakh for the construction of community toilets for women, but it is learnt that there was hardly any progress so far in the district as far as the provision of the facility was concerned. It is claimed that an amount of Rs 57.60 lakh had been spent till November 30 this year against a total availability of Rs 61.54 lakh. The authorities have also drawn plans to construct community and public toilets for women and students in government schools. Certain complaints of misappropriation of funds have also surfaced in the district. Lack of toilets and clean drinking water in the government schools was a common problem in the area, due to unavailability of adequate funds with the school authorities. Under the much publicised self employment scheme in rural areas, the authorities have spent an amount of about 106.09 lakh out of total available funds of Rs 151.96 lakh up to November 30 this year. In this an amount of about Rs 64.11 lakh was released as grant-in-aid for as many as 66 self-help groups. The DRDA has also been able to get about 148 houses for poor people with a grant of about Rs 47.35 lakh. The agency has targeted to get at least 435 houses constructed under the scheme in the present financial year. According to additional deputy commissioner, Hardeep Singh, the agency had also spent an amount of Rs 158.43 lakh on the completion of about 70 works under the ‘MP Local Area Development’ (MPLAD) scheme. Work on another 51 works was in progress. He added that the department had also used an amount of Rs 27.85 lakh on land improvement scheme during the period. The agency, which got a total grant of Rs 26.13 lakh for scheme aimed at uplifting the social and economic standard of urban poor, had used about Rs 24.48 lakh so far. As many as 240 persons have benefited from the project. |
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Two arrested for armed rioting
Rewari, December 29 They were yesterday produced before the duty magistrate here, who sent them to a 14-day judicial custody. Bithla, a resident of Bithla village of Jhajjar district, along with a dozen other gangsters on December 17 had allegedly attacked Haryana Nursing Home at Kosli. They allegedly sabotaged the nursing home and threatened to eliminate Dr Sanjay Sanghvi, husband of Dr Manju Sanghvi, managing director of the nursing home, if they failed to pay them a monthly ransom of Rs 50,000. Simultaneously, one of the gangsters also fired shots from his pistol in the air to intimidate the family. The police had registered a case under Sections 147, 148, 387 and 506 of the IPC as well as Section 3 of the SC/ST Act and Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act against the accused. Simultaneously, police protection was also provided to the family against the alleged threat of elimination by Bithla.
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Information Commissioners
Chandigarh, December 29 The remaining three include an advocate and a retired Army officer. At present there are two members in the SIC, including chief information commissioner G. Madhavan. The SIC can have up to 10 members.
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Janhit Cong leader booked for fraud
Rohtak, December 29 Dalal, a resident of Tilak Nagar locality in the town, has been charged with taking Rs 2 lakh from Jai Singh, son of Ram Narayan of Mahendergarh, for getting him selected for some government
service. However, according to the complainant, Dalal neither fulfilled his promise, nor returned the money. A case against Dalal has been registered at the Urban Estate police station here. The accused had not been arrested till the time of filing of this report. |
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3 jail officials held for freeing convicts
Sonepat, December 29 Superintendent of jail R.S. Mandiwal reportedly went underground after inspector general of prisons M.S. Maan conducted a surprise raid in the prison yesterday and found that 10 convicted prisoners were missing from their barracks. The arrested officials included deputy superintendent Ram Kishan Khatak, assistant superintendent Ram Phal and head warden Duli Chand. A case under Sections 222, 465 and 468 of the IPC had been registered against them and they would be produced in the court tomorrow, said DSP Hari Kailash. According to information, following some complaints , a team from headquarter led by Maan along with chief probation officer Raj Kumar and PA to DGP prisons H.R. Mehta raided the jail premises and found that 10 convicts, including five each from barrack numbers 27 and 16, were missing. According to the jail manual every prisoner has to be back in barrack after his duty by 6.30 pm. Earlier, the district police had recovered mobile sets and sim cards from jail inmates of th local jail. More than a dozen criminal cases were registered against the users and distributors of mobile companies.
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Residents’ protest leads to SHO’s transfer
Sirsa, December 29 They alleged that the police had failed to prevent the crime,
especially theft cases, in the area. Now SHO Dalip Singh has been given the charge of the town. Residents said yesterday Rs 3.5 lakh was looted from a tyre shop in the town and incidents of crime were also on rise in the town for the past sometime. |
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Suggestions sought to ‘enrich’ excise policy
Chandigarh, December 29 Haryana, excise and taxation commissioner Arun Kumar today said the interested persons might send their views and suggestions either in writing or by email to the office of Excise and Taxation Commissioner, Haryana, SCO 71-75, Sector-17C, Chandigarh. Besides they might forward their suggestions by personally meeting the excise and taxation commissioner between 1100 hrs to 1200 hrs on any working day upto January, 8, 2008.
— UNI |
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Broadband services inaugurated
Fatehabad, December 29 Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) had announced to introduce broadband internet services in the town two years back and had also invited applications for the services. However, the department kept delaying the introduction of the services for some technical reasons. Speaking to mediapersons, Agnihotri said the services would benefit students, business community and mediapersons. He said the department would initially issue around 500 broadband connections but would soon start giving it on demand. BSNL was the only service provider in the country which had been providing its services to remote villages too. He also addressed telephone consumers on the occasion. Area manager, Telecom, G.K. Gupta and divisional engineer, Telecom, R.K. Bisla were present on the occasion. |
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Register names, photos of passengers, taxi unions told
Kurukshetra, December 29 While giving this direction, district police chief Amitabh Dhillon asked the presidents to arrange digital cameras and registers, in which names and addresses of taxi passengers would be entered prior to the journey. Dhillon said many times taxi passengers after covering some distance beat up taxi drivers, loot their cash and decamp with hired taxis. The instruction would help the police in saving innocent taxi drivers and nabbing culprits, he added. |
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Steps to boost organic farming
Sonepat, December 29 In the meeting, chaired by the deputy commissioner D.P.S. Nagal, who is also the ex-officio chairman of the body, it was decided that the officers of agriculture, animal husbandry and horticulture department would issue organic health food certificates to the interested farmers on every Wednesday in local Panchayat Bhawan. The certificates will be issued on the basis of the recommendations made by the department officials after personally visiting the fields or the farm houses. The DC stressed the need for forming cooperative societies for marketing of the organic produce and developing clusters under the supervision of Kisan Club, a leading body of farmers engaged in organic farming. He also assured to provide land in Deepalpur village, setting up of organic marketing and cut-flower unit. |
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