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Apartment Act
RTI ACT
Delay in Power Project
Promotion Policy
MDU researcher wins top award
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Citrus fruit processing plant for Sirsa dist
Dr Amit Kumar, main accused in the kidney scam, is taken to the CBI court in Ambala on Friday. A Tribune photograph
High Court comes to SDM’s rescue
Rebel MLAs question Speaker’s authority
Blushes for Chautala
Fire in textile unit
2 killed in accident
3 IAS officers promoted
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HUDA reprieve for original allottees
Pradeep Sharma Tribune News Service
Panchkula, February 22 In his order, HUDA chief administrator T.C. Gupta has decided to recommend to the Haryana government to “exempt the original members from getting the deed of apartment registered under the Indian Stamp Act”. “For a period of six months (by August 31) the original members may not get the deed of apartment registered by which time it is hoped that the government will take a final decision,” the order said. However, the members of the cooperative societies who have purchased the flats in resale should get their deeds of apartment registered by March 31, 2008. No cooperative society was exempt from filing the deed of declaration which must be done within a period of 30 days from the decision, the order said, warning of strict action in case of non-compliance of the order. However, the decision which may at best be termed as a “reprieve” for the original members for a period of six months, rejected the representation of the Forum for Common Cause that demanded the exemption of the cooperative societies allotted land by HUDA from the purview of the Act. The HUDA chief administrator issued the “speaking order” on the direction of the high court. The forum had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the matter alleging that the societies were not being given a hearing by HUDA. The societies and HUDA had been at loggerheads on the issue of the registration of deed of apartment as the societies had been pleading that they were not under the purview of the Act. When the societies had already paid the cost of land and stamp duty on the allotment of land there was no need for the payment of stamp duty for the second time, the societies had contended. “Though a welcome decision, the cooperative societies will seek relief for all members from Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who is also the HUDA chairman,” Deepak Rai Walia of the Forum for Common Cause told The Tribune here today. The relief fell short of the expectations of the general public, he alleged. President of the Haryana Group Housing Federation B.K. Sanghi said HUDA had only given a “temporary reprieve” to the society members. Keeping in view the public interest, Hooda should intervene and provide relief to all owners of the dwelling units whether they were original members or other members, Sanghi pleaded.
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Madhavan finds fault with HUDA, estate offices
Aarti Kapur Tribune News Service
Gurgaon, February 22
This was revealed by chief information commissioner, Haryana, G. Madhavan while taking to The Tribune here today. Madhavan said, in the past two years, maximum notices were served to these two departments from commissions in Gurgaon and Faridabad to provide information to the concerned party. He said the commission wanted that offices in these two developing districts should reply to queries of people in the stipulated period. Situation in Faridabad had improved in the past few months but nothing had improved in Gurgaon even after the directions of the commission. Districts falling under the National Capital Region (NCR) in the state would have to gear up their administrative machinery for the proper implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, as even after two years of its coming into force, they were not able to provide proper and timely information to concerned citizens of the area. He said a number of departments in the NCR were not taking required interest in the implementation of the Act due to which people were not able to get the full benefit of this Act. He opined that the administration of the NCR would have to rise according to the aspirations of the citizens of the area, as they were well educated and aware about their rights. While referring to the meeting of the All-India Information Commissioners, where the issue of imposing fine on those who ask frivolous information under the RTI Act was raised, Madhavan remarked that the government had formulated the RTI Act to ease the lengthy procedures of seeking information and not to create one more hurdle in getting information. When questioned about the misuse of the RTI Act in the state, he replied that around 5 per cent of the citizens misused the Act and the commission was discouraging such elements by denying them information, which did not serve any purpose to an individual or society. Madhavan commented that a majority of people living in rural areas were still not aware about this Act. Even people living in urban areas were not much familiar with the Act. However, employees of various government and non-government organisations felt that the Act would affect their jobs, so they try to avoid giving information to people.
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Government seeks damages from REL
Chandigarh, February 22 The first unit of 300-MW of the Yamunanagar plant was scheduled to go on stream from November last year, while the second unit was to begin operations on February 20. A letter of intent for setting up the project, estimated to cost Rs 2,400 crore, was awarded to the company on September 30, 2004. Sources said REL had synchronised the first unit of this project in November about four months ahead of the expected commissioning while pointing out that the slippage to a great extent could be attributed to nearly an eight-month delay by state authorities in clearing the drawings. They also said the company should not be penalised for the delays which were beyond its control, adding that the project at Rs 3.49 crore per MW would be the cheapest and the fastest in the country in terms of commissioning. However, Haryana power minister Randeep Surjewala said: “Whatever amount arising out of the failure of fulfilling contractual obligation, they (REL) will pay.” The company was supposed to complete the 2x300 MW unit of power by November 20, 2007 for producing 72 lakh units and the second unit of the same capacity should have started generation on February 20. But it had not been able to finish the job within the given time frame, he added. However, the minister described the process as a ‘routine matter’, adding that: “We are just concentrating on the completion of the power station.” Surjewala said REL had assured Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that it would complete the first 300-MW unit of power plant by February end or first week of March. “The company has further assured us that the second unit of 300 MW would be commissioned during the month of April or May,” he said. REL had bagged the engineering, procurement and construction contract to build the project with a lowest bid of Rs 3.49 crore per MW. The state government would contribute 20 per cent equity for the project, while the balance 80 per cent had been arranged through Power Finance Corporation — PTI
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Excise staff strike work
Tribune News Service
Faridabad, February 22 The employees are on the warpath against the department’s move to tamper with the quota policy whereby members from the clerical staff are promoted to the rank of inspector in both excise and taxation units. As per the present norm, half of the posts of inspector are filled through this quota promotion. The remaining posts are filled by way of direct recruitment. The strike by the employees crippled the functioning of the department. The chief convener of the joint action committee of the employees, Amar Singh Yadav, claimed that the strike was successful and the employees did not cave into pressure from some quarters which aimed at dissuading them from it. The employees alleged that the department had decided in principle on October 17 last to reduce the quota to 10 per cent. When a delegation of the employees met minister for excise and taxation Birender Singh in Chandigarh on January 16 to urge him not to tamper with the quota promotion policy in the department, the latter allegedly said that he wanted to annul the quota system and was in favour of direct recruitment to the post of inspector. Yadav said the employees were determined to thwart the government move. The joint action committee has given a call for a pen-down strike on March 19 and 20.
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MDU researcher wins top award
Rohtak, February 22 The MDU researcher was awarded the first prize for presenting his research article titled “Monoclonal antibodies AC-43 and AC-29 block parasite P. vivax development in An. culicifacies and reduce its fecundity”. He received a memento, certificate and a cash award of Rs 5,000. Chugh has done M Pharma with specialisation in pharmacology and is pursuing PhD in biotechnology under the supervision of Prof S.K. Gakhar of the Advanced Centre for Biotechnology at MDU. Dr Bouma Menno from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and Carlton Jane from the department of medical parasitology, New York, USA, adjudged his research work as the best considering its practical applicability. He dedicated his success to Dr Gakhar’s valuable guidance and unflinching support.
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Citrus fruit processing plant for Sirsa dist
Sirsa, February 22 Arora said the state was on the track of development and its GDP was 10.5 per cent against the national figure of 9.2 per cent. In per capita investment, too, Haryana had been placed first at Rs 78,500, he said. The minister said the state government had been providing many facilities for establishing IT-based units.The government had recently taken a decision that it would exempt these units from electricity surcharge for the next five years. |
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Judicial custody for Amit till March 7
Our Correspondent & PTI
Ambala, February 22 Two days back, one of his accomplices Dr K.K. Aggarwal, an anesthetist from Moradabad, was also produced in the court, which remanded him to CBI custody till February 28. Initially, a local court of Delhi had remanded Amit to CBI custody for 10 days. After the completion of the remand, he was produced in the CBI court at Ambala city. The CBI, in an application, said Amit was medically examined before producing in the court and no further CBI remand was required, as it had completed Amit’s interrogation during his remand granted by the special CBI court at Delhi. Public prosecutor A.K. Singh appeared in the court on behalf of the CBI. The counsel of the accused requested the court to direct the CBI to allow Amit to have telephonic contact with his family members, which was accepted by the court. The counsels, S.D. Singh and Amit Gupta, later told mediapersons that they would soon file the bail application of Pooja, wife of Jeevan, in the court. Jeevan is Amit’s brother. The CBI had arrested Amit Kumar, Upender Kumar, Jeevan, K.K. Aggarwal, Pooja and two nurses in this regard. According to CBI sources around half a dozen accused were still to be arrested. Agent held
Kathmandu: A Nepalese ‘agent’ of Amit Kumar, the alleged kingpin in the
multi-crore kidney racket, has been arrested in Saptari district of eastern Nepal. Pankaj Jha, 34, was arrested on Thursday from his house at Barhibirpur village, Nepal police spokesman Sushil Bar Singh Thapa said. The police claimed that Jha had confessed to his involvement in the kidney racket. Many poor Nepalese residing in rural areas had fallen prey to Jha, who was running a nursing home in Kathmandu. |
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High Court comes to SDM’s rescue
Fatehabad, February 22 Dahiya, an HCS officer, was due to retire on February 29, but the government relieved him by compulsory retirement on February 14, 15 days before his superannuation. Dahiya had been punished for allegedly using unfair means during a departmental examination.
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Rebel MLAs question Speaker’s authority
Chandigarh, February 22 The rebels were hard-pressed to give replies today to the notices sent to them from the assembly. The trio, who had to be summoned by publishing notices in leading dailies, had exhausted the possibility of being granted further time by the Speaker for submitting their replies. Counsel representing the rebels today questioned the maintainability of the petitions against them for defecting to the Haryana Janhit Congress. Satpal Jain, representing Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj, and Nidhesh Gupta, representing Bhajan Lal, said the petitions against their clients had at least 10 legal defects, and as a result were not maintainable. The counsel also argued that how could the Speaker, who had not resigned from the Congress after being chosen the presiding officer of the House, decide on the subject of defecting from the Congress. Shadilal Batra, Jitender Malik and Ramesh Gupta, petitioners, said they would give written replies on the issue of legal errors raised by the counsel of the opposite camp. The three Congress MLAs said they would also urge the Speaker to ask the respondents to answer the central issue of defection raised against them. The case will now come up before the speaker on February 29.
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Blushes for Chautala
Sonepat, February 22 While he was addressing a public meeting in Baroda village today, a villager reportedly kept on waving a Congress flag from a distance. In another incident, while addressing a public meeting in Bhainswan Khurd village yesterday when Chautala in his usual style asked the villagers: “Sarkar pehle wali achhi thee ya ab wali”, a villager, Jeeta, immediately replied “Chaudhary sahib, Hooda sahib nein mauj kar rakhi sai”. He was forcibly removed from the public meeting. A similar incident was reported from his public meeting in Khanpur Kalan village on Wednesday where some villagers reportedly raised slogans in favour of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
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Fire in textile unit
Sonepat, February 22 The fire, which was reportedly caused due to a short
circuit in the unit’s godown, was extinguished by fire engines
summoned from Gohana. Unit employee Rohtas noticed smoke in the locked godown where towels, the main product of the unit, were stored and informed the owner, Ravinder Garg. |
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2 killed in accident
Jhajjar, February 22 The deceased were returning after offering prayers at a temple in Pilani town of Rajasthan. The deceased were identified as Subhash and Rajkumar, residents of Nai Basti in Bahadurgarh town. |
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3 IAS officers promoted
Chandigarh, February 22 The promoted officers are Harbaksh Singh, Anuradha Gupta and P. K. Gupta. They will continue to look after the departments they were earlier heading as commissioners. |
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Kidney Racket
