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Congress prefers constitutional route against Bhajan
Sampat smells rat in review plea of Lanco
Asbestos Pipes
Land Mafia
Govt okays new tourism policy
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Irregularities in Funds
‘North India facing serious power crunch’
In-laws booked for woman, infant’s death
Officer held guilty of delaying info
SDO beaten up, 6 villagers held
Double Murder
Suicide bid in custody
Mercedes catches fire
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Congress prefers constitutional route against Bhajan
Chandigarh, January 2 Special petitions under Article 191(2) of Schedule X of the Constitution were preferred in the Quasi Judicial Tribunal of speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Raghuvir Singh Qadian, to demand disqualification of Bhajan Lal (Adampur), Dharampal Singh Malik (Gohana) and Rakesh Kamboj (Indri) from the assembly. Harbhagwan Singh, who was the advocate-general of Haryana during the Bhajan Lal-led government, is representing the petitioners, who are sitting members of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. The petitioners - Shadi Lal Batra, Jatinder Malik and Ramesh Gupta - alleged that since Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Singh Malik and Rakesh Kamboj were elected on the Congress ticket in the last assembly elections, they had incurred “defection” by joining the Janhit Congress and were liable to be disqualified as members of the Vidhan Sabha for voluntarily giving up membership of the original party (Indian National Congress). They wanted disqualifications to be effective from December 2 last year, the day they publicly announced joining of the Janhit Congress. Speaker Raghuvir Singh Qadian, who received the petitions in person at his residence, said he would get them examined by the Vidhan Sabha secretariat and in his capacity as Quasi Judicial Tribunal, he would give his decision after considering all aspects, including giving a chance to the legislators whose disqualification had been sought. Interestingly, neither the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee nor the All-India Congress Committee has initiated any disciplinary action against Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Singh Malik and Rakesh Kamboj. No disciplinary action has also been initiated against the prime mover of the new party - Kuldip Bishnoi, Congress MP from Bhiwani - who had been openly criticising not only the Congress government in Haryana but also Congress president Sonia Gandhi and the special economic zone policy of the UPA government at the centre. It was Kuldip Bishnoi who organised the December 2 Janhit rally where the announcement about the new party was made. While the Congress continues to dither on disciplinary action against Kuldip Bishnoi, Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Singh Malik and Rakesh Kamboj, it has now decided to “use” the speaker of the Vidhan Sabha to carry out the “unpleasant task”. The petitioners explained that since they were members of the Haryana Congress legislature party, they felt slighted at the “indisciplinary and anti-party activities, which warranted action under the Constitution and anti-defection laws. Hence, we decided to prefer petitions in the Quasi Judicial Tribunal headed by the speaker with the hope that action as per Constitutional provisions will be taken against Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Singh Malik and Rakesh Kamboj”. “We hope these seats will be declared vacant and byelections held ,” they added. Haryana minister for parliamentary affairs Randeep Singh Surjewala said Bhajan Lal, Dharampal Singh Malik and Rakesh Kamboj by their actions had “incurred defections” and the speaker would review the petitions under various provisions of the Constitution and Rules of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. “Wait and see” was his response when asked whether any action would be taken against Kuldip Bishnoi, MP. Congress leaders, including the petitioners, maintained that whether the Janhit Congress was registered with the Election Commission of India as a party or not was not the issue. The issue was that “can anyone ask voters to support a new party after getting elected on the symbol and ticket of the Indian National Congress”. “There would have been no objection had they resigned from the Indian National Congress and joined any party or started a new party on their own,” they added. |
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Sampat smells rat in review plea of Lanco
Chandigarh, January 2 Under the agreement, Haryana was to purchase 300 MW annually for 25 years at a cost of Rs 16,500 crore. The agreement was rejected by the HERC on the plea that it not only violated the laws on power purchases, including the mandatory competitive bidding, but also on the enhanced rate of commission to the power trading corporation than normally permissible. The national tariff policy and the national electricity policy lay down parameters for power purchase agreements to safeguard the interests of the consumers and the state. “Serious damage is being sought to be done by the state government to a statutory body by pressuring it to illegally admit the review petition,” alleged Sampat Singh. Accusing the Congress government of blatantly subverting the rule of law to favour the Hyderabad-based and Congress MP owned Lanco Amarkantak Thermal Project at the cost of the people of Haryana, he demanded the immediate cancellation of the review.The HERC should be allowed to function independently and in good faith. He also accused the HPGCL of hatching a conspiracy at the behest of the Haryana government to favour the said company. Sampat Singh wondered how the HERC could admit the review petition as it had earlier found that the government had entered into the said power sale agreement in contravention of clause 5.1 of the national tariff policy as it was found that it did not fall under the “exceptions” under the clause. He also wondered how a letter without bearing any diary number produced by Lanco could be considered as proof of its eligibility to avail itself of the “exception” clause when the HERC had already rejected such a claim. Sampat Singh said that even M/S Feedback Ventures, independent consultant appointed by the HPGCL, had concluded that the procurement plan from Lanco Amarkantak Project would not be in line with the national tariff policy. Even the power department had observed in its note to the Council of Ministers that "strictly going by the tariff policy, it appears that we shall have no choice but to ask for bids for power procurement on a long-term basis (these include the 300 MW Amarkantak Project)." However, the same power department in the very next breath went on to suggest that "the state should safeguard its interest even if a deviation has to be made from the (national tariff) policy." He reiterated that the HERC, being a quasi judicial body, should necessarily act within the parameters enunciated by the act and the national policies and regulations framed by it. Therefore, a review petition approving the PSA, based on a negotiated basis rather than open bidding, should be summarily thrown out of the window. He said that earlier also the INLD had criticised the agreement for not safeguarding the interest of the Haryana consumers on various grounds, including the fact that there was no extension clause. It was also obvious that after purchasing power at a higher cost than in the case of Punjab, which purchased it at the rate of Rs 1.19 per unit, the HPGCL had already planned to pass on the additional burden to the hapless consumers. Under the agreement, Haryana was to get power at Rs 2.32 a unit. Further, in another deviation from the national policy, for reasons best known to the HPGCL, it had agreed to pay a commission of 5 paise to the PTC for the first 10 years and 10 paise for the remaining period though they, according to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission , were to pay only 2 paise for the first 10 years and 4 paise subsequently. |
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Asbestos Pipes
Chandigarh, January 2 Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the committee would be headed by agriculture minister H.S. Chatha. Other members would include the secretaries of the departments of power, cooperation, transport and animal husbandry. A representative of the chief secretary would be the member secretary of the committee, which would submit its report within two months. Reacting to INLD leader Sampat Singh’s allegations that hazardous asbestos pipes were being used to supply potable water by the department of water supply and sanitation, Hooda clarified that the state government had no report to suggest that these pipes were hazardous. Had it been so, these would have been banned. Hooda said a committee headed by the urban development secretary had been constituted to finalise the jurisdiction of the Gurgaon municipal corporation. The members of the committee would include the divisional commissioner, the deputy commissioner, the administrator, Haryana Urban Development Authority, Gurgaon, and the president of the municipal council, Gurgaon. The committee would submit its report within a month. Hooda said five persons would be administered oath of office as information commissioners tomorrow. They are Asha Sharma, Lt-Gen J.B.S. Yadav (retd), Ashok Mehta, M.L. Ranga and Prem Vir Singh. |
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Land Mafia
Gurgaon, January 2 Deputy commissioner Rakesh Gupta along with district development and panchayat officer and tehsildar went to Badshahpur village to see the panchayat land for the construction of a hockey stadium, but he was surprised to see construction of roads on the land by a construction company. The company had also put up a steel-tin boundary on the land. Gensets with strips of DLF were lying on the land and the persons working there were also wearing jackets with ‘DLF’ subscribed on them. On enquiring in the matter, the deputy commissioner was apprised by the DDPO that panchayat land measuring 19 acre of Badshahpur was given on one year lease in May (2007) to a person of the same village for taking up agriculture activities. The land was again sublet by the lessee to the construction company. According to the DDPO, it was duty of the panchayat to take care of its property and if the lessee was misusing the land for purposes other then mentioned in the lease, sarpanch Subash Tyagi should have got the lease cancelled. But the sarpanch did nothing in this direction, which indicates his involvement in letting the panchayat land go into the hands of the construction company for commercial use. Gupta ordered to place the sarpanch under suspension with an immediate effect. Block development and panchayat officer of Sohna Rishi Kumar was directed by the DC to get the panchayat land evacuated from the construction company’s illegal occupation. The land is situated on 130m wide southern peripheral road, which connects Sohna to Sector-57, Gurgaon. So, it is a prime land and according to the persons dealing in property matters, the land costs more than Rs 200 crore. Officers of the Panchayat Department were also studying the matter for getting an FIR lodged against the persons involved in this fraud. By the prompt action of the district administration, panchayat land worth crores of rupees was today saved from going into the hands of land mafia. |
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Govt okays new tourism policy
Chandigarh, January 2 The council also approved a ban on use of all types of plastic articles within municipal limits by Thenesar and Kurukshetra besides all wildlife sanctuaries and national parks and gram panchayat, Morni. Another important decision taken by the council of ministers was to separate the department of civil aviation from the Transport Department. It also decided to frame the Haryana Lok Ayukta (functions, powers, inquiry and investigation) rules. The council also approved amendments to the Excise and Taxation Act to modify criteria for selection cases for scrutiny assessments. Since Gurgaon is a fast developing town and has also emerged as a major developing industrial hub, with its urban agglomeration touching more than 13.50 lakh after clubbing newly developed sectors of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation’s (HSIIDC) complex in Manesar and area developed by private developers, it was considered fit for a corporation. The total estimated budget of the Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon would be Rs 315 crore. The existing staff of municipal council, Gurgaon, will merge with that of the corporation. The Municipal Corporation would comprise whole of geographical area falling under the area already notified under Gurgaon’s final development plan, 2021. The Municipal Corporation will provide a unitary authority to the existing organisations like the HUDA, HSIIDC and the Municipal Corporation itself. The new tourism policy would aim at broadening and diversifying the concept of tourism in view of the Indian tourism scenario which witnessed a growth of 75 per cent in the foreign tourist arrivals during the past five years. Haryana’s Tourism Policy also aims at enhancing the infrastructure, especially in the National Capital Region, improving professional excellence in training human resources, developing sustained and effective marketing strategy and used technology to achieve the desired goals. |
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Irregularities in Funds
Fatehabad, January 2 The authorities have decided to initiate criminal proceedings against the officials working under the ICDS in case discrepancies were detected in the records or stocks of any of the anganwadis. After complaints of financial irregularities in the functioning of the ICDS scheme, the district authorities had asked the project officer and ICDS to submit month-to-month receipt and expenditure statement of each anganwadi. Supplementary nutrition is provided to small kids, adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating mother under the ICDS at as many as 704 anganwadis working in this district. The project officer, ICDS had been making a demand of Rs 2 lakh per day (approximately) from the government for providing supplementary nutrition through these anganwadis. Recently, the district authorities had released a sum of Rs 1.53 crore from October to December (2007) on the demand of project officer, ICDS. But, the demand of funds suddenly nosedived to nearly half, when the authorities demanded the statement of the money received and spent by the anganwadi. Looking in to the suspicious nature of the functioning, the authorities have now decided to do away with the practice of releasing advance funds on quarterly basis. The authorities will now release funds for one month only at a time. Additional deputy commissioner C. G. Rajnikanthan, who monitors working of the ICDS in the district, informed The Tribune that the authorities would now conduct surprise checks at anganwadis, and criminal cases would be registered against the workers and their officers in case irregularities were found in their stocks or funds. |
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‘North India facing serious power crunch’ Chandigarh, January 2 He said all possible efforts are on to procure maximum power from all available sources even at higher rates to meet the present demand. These included liquid fuel power in the range of 100 MW to 150 MW from various gas based power-generating stations located in northern region as well as the western region. He said on an average, 623 lakh units of electricity daily had been supplied to consumers during December 2007 compared to 611 lakh units daily supplied during corresponding month of 2006. Referring to the state’s own power generating stations, he said, on an average, the generating units produced 273 lakh units of electricity daily during December 2007 and the Plant Load Factor (PLF) had been about 78 per cent. One unit of 110 MW of Thermal Panipat had been taken for renovation and modernisation. He said the power availability would improve within a fortnight after commercial operation of first unit of 300 MW Thermal Power Project, Yamunanagar. — PTI
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Gitanjali wants to teach, be a model again
Hisar, January 2 During her first interaction with the media after she underwent treatment at VIMHANS in Delhi here today, she said she would love to be a model again but would consider that option only if she received offers for modelling assignments. She said she passed her time here doing gardening and reading books and magazines in the school library. She finds books on fashion designing and lifestyle magazines very interesting and engrossing. She said she was grateful to the school authorities for offering to host her for her rehabilitation. Though she appeared a bit nervous, she looked healthy and happy too. “Interaction with the students and school staff helped a lot and I never felt lonely or a stranger here,” she said. She often goes to the school art workshop and tries her hands at abstract and fabric painting. The former model who once sashayed with the likes of Sushmita Sen way back in the nineties said she also loved to play badminton with the students. Other than this she often cooks fresh vegetables for her mother who is staying with her in the school. Gitanjali was found on the Delhi streets begging. She was addicted to drugs and was in poor health due to her addiction and poor personal hygiene. She was identified from her photographs by her former friends. After her plight was highlighted by the media, she was admitted to VIMHANS for treatment. After she was detoxified, she was sent here after the VDJ School authorities offered to host her. She has a son who lives with his father in Germany. She is likely to be fully fit by the month-end after which she has to begin life afresh. |
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New lawyer on Bar council
Rohtak, January 2 A local lawyer with just two years’ standing, Dr Vijender Ahlawat, has made it to the Punjab and Haryana Bar Council in elections held recently. As many as 134 candidates from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh were in the fray for 25 seats of the council, which is the apex licensing and regulatory body of lawyers. The District Bar Association accorded a warm welcome to Ahlawat at a function organised here today. Association vice-president Wazir Khokhar presided over the function, which was attended by a number of bar members. Addressing the gathering, Ahlawat expressed his gratitude to the local advocates for their support. He asserted that he would try to ensure the implementation of a pension scheme for the widows of lawyers on the Delhi pattern. Ahlawat won despite several heavyweight candidates, including sitting and former council members, being in the fray. Interestingly, this educationist-turned-legislator-turned lawyer was a zila parishad member and college lecturer before he decided to pursue law as a career. He was also active in student politics earlier and remained the president of the students’ union at Hindu College, Sonepat. |
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In-laws booked for woman, infant’s death
Jind, January 2 They succumbed to death after alleged consumption of a poisonous substance. The police has registered a case of dowry death against seven members of the family on the in-laws side of the deceased on a complaint lodged by the parents of the victim. Those booked include the husband, mother-in-law, two brothers-in-laws and son of a brother-in-law. So far, no arrest has been made in this connection. According to the complaint, the deceased Pinki (23) had been married to Satyawan about three and a half years ago. While she had a daughter aged about one and a half years, the woman had been under acute depression due to circumstances prevailing at her in-laws house. Her parents alleged that she had been harassed for not bringing dowry and was poisoned to death ultimately. The police has booked a case and has started investigations into the matter. It is reported that Pinki and her daughter Varsha became seriously ill past night after consuming a suspected poisonous substance at their house. The child succumbed to death soon after, while Pinki died after reaching the hospital. This has been the first case of alleged dowry death in the district this year. Over a dozen cases of dowry and matrimonial disputes had been booked in the district during the past year. |
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Officer held guilty of delaying info
Kurukshetra, January 2 According to Nawal Kishore, who has received a communication in this regard, the PIO-cum-DEO, Kurukshetra, has been asked to provide information free of cost for the delay caused by its office to him. He had sought information about his client, Santosh Kumari Sharma, a social science teacher at Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Baraut, in the district regarding her service book on May 10, 2007. However, the authorities concerned did not reply within a month as prescribed in the RTI Act, Nawal Kishore added. An appeal was made to S.P.S. Yadav, joint director in the office of the director-general-cum-commissioner, school education, Haryana, Chandigarh, who had directed the DEO, Kurukshetra, to supply information to the appellant but the DEO, Kurukshetra, failed to comply with the orders. A second appeal was made to the State Information Commission and it directed the DEO to supply information to the appellant, but again the orders were not complied with. Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, state commissioner, Information Commission, Haryana, heard both parties and reprimanded the DEO. She asked the latter to supply information free of cost. |
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SDO beaten up, 6 villagers held
Sirsa, January 2 The incident took place at around 11 am, when the villagers of Rupawas and nearby villages, who were gathered outside the power sub-station, complained that due to indifferent attitude of authorities, they had been getting almost negligible power and most of the time facing power cuts. Police sources said later, the annoyed villagers also damaged the property of the power sub-station and roughed up SDO Milkhi Ram. The police personnel in a large number were deployed to control the aggressive crowd. Later, the police arrested six villagers acting on the complaint of the SDO. The six were arrested under Sections 332, 353, 186, 452 of the IPC. |
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Double Murder
Faridabad, January 2 District police chief Alok Mittal said some persons of Prithla village were being interrogated in this connection. The sisters were natives of Prithla and so are the three arrested youths. Relatives of the two sisters, however, are not happy with the police action. The bodies of the two sisters were found on a railway track last month. One of them was beheaded. The postmortem report had suggested rape and murder of the two. The relatives have been alleging that the police has come under political pressure from some quarters of the ruling Congress in the state and is trying to shield the accused. The police, however, refutes the charge and asserts that the case will be be solved soon. The girl student, who was a college friend of the two sisters, and the three youths are in police remand. The police successfully sought extension of the remand period. The earlier 12-day remand period expired on December 31. |
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Suicide bid in custody
Jhajjar, January 2 According to information, a policeman spotted him lying in unconscious condition in the lockup with blood soaked clothes and foaming in his mouth. The police immediately took him to the local civil hospital, where the doctors informed that he had inflicted injury in his bladder with some sharp-edged weapon. The doctors suspected that he had also consumed some poisonous substance too. He was referred to the PGIMS at Rohtak. The DSP, Arun Nehra told that Sandeep has allegedly killed his wife after some dispute in Bahadurgarh in his in-laws. |
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Mercedes catches fire
Panipat, January 2 Police sources said H. L. Malhotra and three other members of his family were driving to Ludhiana in their car (DL- 1C- J- 3334) when it reportedly lost control and caught fire. Eyewitnesses told The Tribune that the engine of the car caught fire in the middle of the GT Road, but the occupants managed to come out of it unhurt. Though the fire tenders immediately reached on the spot and controlled the fire, but the front
part of the vehicle was badly burnt. |
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