Fatehabad, February 25
A major scam of misappropriation and swindling of government funds under the Indira Awaas Yojna (IAY) has come to light in Ratia and Bhattu blocks of the district, where money for construction of houses for poor has been siphoned off by the rich.

In some cases, the money has been misappropriated by those who were supposed to distribute the funds among the poor.

District authorities have begun a probe into all funds released under the scheme during the past two years and many more irregularities are expected to come to the fore.

Under the IAY, the union ministry of rural development provides a grant of Rs 25,000 each to the poor in villages for the construction of pucca houses. To get the grant, the family must have a below poverty line (BPL) card, a pucca house of its own and must be among the poorest of poor in their respective village.

The funds for the grant from the ministry are received by the district rural development agency (DRDA) and then passed on to block development officers (BDO) as per their share, calculated on the basis of population, for distribution amongst the actual beneficiaries to be identified on the basis of above guidelines.

The BDO has to release the amount in two instalments of Rs 15,000 and Rs 10,000 each and the second instalment is released only once the BDO is satisfied that the first instalment has been properly utilised for the purpose it was released.

After disbursement of the funds, the BDOs are required to give utility certificates (UCs) to the DRDA, who in turn gives the UC to the ministry.

The scam came to light when C.G. Rajnikanthan, ADC-cum-chief executive officer of the DRDA demanded UCs from the BDOs of Ratia and Bhattu Kalan.

Despite several reminders, the officers failed to provide lists of beneficiaries to the ADC. The ADC then deputed an official from Fatehabad to collect the list of beneficiaries and confirm whether the grant had actually been received at their end or not.

Out of 164 cases of grants in Ratia block in 2006-07, 76 were found fraudulent and of the 45 cases of 2007-08, 20 were detected where money meant for the poor had been embezzled in one way or the other.

Likewise, in Bhattu Kalan block, 14 out of 37 cases of 2007-08 have come under the scanner.

Dhai Devi, a poor woman from Dhabi Kalan village in Bhattu Kalan block, has received Rs 25,000 for the construction of pucca house on papers, but on the ground level she neither received the money nor she could construct her house.

Madan Lal, a resident of Chuli Kalan, is another case where money failed to reach the beneficiary shown in records. In another case at Rattangarh in Ratia Block of the district, a landlord having his own kothi has been given funds under the scheme.

In some cases, money had been handed over to village sarpanches and not to the beneficiaries, whose names had been mentioned in records. The money has been misappropriated by sarpanches in such cases and the real beneficiaries came to know of the fact only when officials of the DRDA went to their houses for inquiry.

Rajnikanthan said the inquiry was in progress and the BDOs would be made to pay for the loss from their pockets.

He said in all five kind of irregularities had been detected by his office. In some cases, the beneficiaries did not have BPL cards and in others those having pucca houses were given funds.

Rohtak, February 25
A number of candidates who had appeared in the entrance test for MD, MS and MDS courses conducted by Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here have alleged that there were anomalies in the test results. MDU had declared the test results on its website last night.

The “affected” candidates today staged a demonstration in front of the office of the PGIMS director and raised slogans. They alleged that several seats had been “sold” to NRI candidates while the meritorious and deserving ones had been ignored.

On being told that the director was in the OPD, the protesters went there and aired their grievance. The director, Prof S.S.Sangwan, clarified that the PGIMS had nothing to do with the entrance examination, which was conducted by MDU.

Professor Sangwan told the candidates that they could submit a representation to him, which he would forward to the university authorities. However, the candidates left without handing over any written complaint to him .

On being contacted, the MDU vice-chancellor, Prof R.P.Hooda, said he had not got any complaint in this regard. He, however, maintained that strict secrecy measures had been taken to ensure fairness and there was no room for irregularities.

“Still, we’ll look into the matter and do the needful if we receive a complaint regarding the matter,” he asserted.

Jind, February 25
Authorities have booked at least six persons for impersonation in the ongoing matric annual examination of the Open School of the Haryana State Education Board at Safidon town in the district today.

Though the accused were able to flee from the centre, officials booked cases against the six examinees who allowed unauthorised persons to appear on their behalf.

According to reports, the impersonation bid was detected at Government Boys Senior Secondary School in Safidon town, when a flying squad led by SDM Roshan Lal reached the centre around 10:30 am for a sudden checking at the centre.

It is learnt that six youths sitting in one of the halls of the S-3 centre jumped out of the window and fled before the flying team entered the room. The team found that the six ‘examinees’ were fake and had come in an illegal manner to appear on behalf of others.

The examinees, on whose behalf the fake candidates had appeared, have been identified as Shamsher, Sandeep, Ravinder, Pravin, Vinod and Anil Kumar.

In another incident, two cases of copying were also booked at the centres of Pillukhera-One and Pillukhera-Two in the district.

An official of the Haryana School Education Board, however, claimed that no case of impersonation had come to light while all eight cases booked today had been of the UMC. He said he had no information of either how many students had been appearing in the annual board exams or how many cases of copying had been booked so far in these papers, which had started from February 18.

A total of 116 examination centres have been set up in the district for the annual board examination. However, there had been no official in the district who could divulge the relevant details about the exams in the district, though a huge amount of funds and infrastructure had been made available at the disposal of the authorities concerned by the Haryana government.

Chandigarh, February 25
Haryana’s annual plan for the year 2008-09 has been agreed at Rs 6,650 crore by the Planning Commission. It is over 25 per cent higher than the approved outlay of Rs 5,300 crore of the previous year’s plan size.

Deputy chairman of the planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia had a meeting with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in New Delhi today for the finalisation of the annual plan.

Finance minister Birender Singh, deputy chairman of the state Planning Board Ranjit Singh, chief secretary Promilla Issar and other senior officers of the state government participated in the meeting.

A government press note said while distributing this outlay among various sectors, highest priority was given to improvement of social services comprising mainly of education, health, drinking water supply and sanitation, urban development, housing and promotion of social justice through pensions to the old, handicapped, widows and destitute.

An outlay of Rs 3,129.36 crore had been kept for these services, which was 47 per cent of the total annual plan outlay.

An amount of Rs 640 crore had been kept for pensions to the old, physically disabled, widows and destitute, Rs 970 crore had been earmarked for education, including technical and vocational education, and Rs 163.85 crore had been kept for health services and medical education.

A sum of Rs 653 crore was going to be allocated for drinking water supply and sewer schemes. An amount of Rs 227.25 crore would be allocated for housing and urban development.

Second highest priority was given to improvement of basic infrastructure of irrigation, power, roads and road transport by earmarking an amount of Rs 2,431.10 crore.

Out of this outlay, Rs 790 crore had been earmarked for the irrigation sector and the power sector had been allotted Rs 874.75 crore.

Roads and road transport had been allocated Rs 766.35 crore.

An outlay of Rs 719.51 crore had been kept for agriculture and allied activities and rural development.

An allocation of Rs 22.50 crore had been made for the special development of the two most backward areas of Mewat and Shivalik.

Chandigarh, February 25
In a petition filed in public interest, two advocates have sought a probe into the alleged allotment of industrial plots to a minister, half a dozen ruling Congress party legislators, bureaucrats or their kin by the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) at Bhiwani. Taking up the case, a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, comprising Chief Justice Vijender Jain and Justice Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, issued a notice of motion to the respondents for July 8.

Claiming that the allotments were based on nepotism and without following any criteria, the advocates, Babbar Bhan and Satyajit, have also asked for cancelling the recommendations for allotment, approved by HUDA chairman on January 9.

The respondents include state education and transport minister Mange Ram Gupta and state chief parliamentary secretary Dharambir, along with ruling Congress MLAs Chhatarpal Singh, Shiv Shankar Bhardwaj, Som Vir Singh, Ram Kishan Fauji and ex-MLA Ram Bhajan Aggarwal. Among a total of 44 respondents, the bureaucrats figuring in the list includes: M.L.Tayal, T.C.V.Gupta , Rajive Arora and Jyoti Arora.

Chandigarh, February 25
An HCS officer Kamlesh Kumar, whose selection to the civil service is under judicial scrutiny along with that of others, has denied the allegations that his marks in the English paper were increased.

The allegation was levelled in the report submitted by the petitioner’s counsel after inspecting answer sheets of successful candidates in the HCS and allied services examination conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission during the INLD regime to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In an affidavit filed before the high court, Kamlesh Kumar, who is posted as secretary, Chandigarh Housing Board, said it was also wrong to say that the non-authentication of marks awarded in the general knowledge paper by the examiner amounted to any irregularity.

He said the non-authentication was of no consequence because the marks awarded inside the answer sheet dully tallied with the marks written in a table on the index page of the sheet. The marks inside the answer sheet and those on its index page tallied were duly certified by an official of the commission.

The officer also contended that throughout his academic career, he had been scoring above 60 per cent marks. Before and after he cleared the HCS exam, he passed the Combined Defence Services exam, written examination of the IAS thrice, the Uttar Pradesh Civil Service exam and many more. Besides, he was an MBA.

Chandigarh, February 25
The Haryana Government today granted chief secretary’s (CS) scale to six IAS officers (1975 batch), who were already designated as financial commissioners (FC).

The officers who have got the scale are Urvashi Gulati, FC, Panchayat and Development; R.N. Prashar, FC, Irrigation; H.C. Disodia, FC, Forests; G. Prassana, FC, Transport, and Naresh Gulati, FC, Labour and Employment. Another officer of this batch, Bala Bhaskar, has been given proforma of promotion because he is on deputation with the Union government.

Yamunanagar, February 25
If voted to power in the state, the BJP would provide Rs 1,000 as an unemployment allowance and raise pension to Rs 600, besides waiving of loans up to Rs 50,000 taken by farmers, workers and labourers. The party would ensure that this section of society gets bank loans at an interest of 4 per cent only.

Atam Parkash Manchanda, Haryana BJP president said this while addressing a public meeting in Sadhoura here today. Earlier, the Vijay Sankalp Yatra led by him received a warm welcome on its arrival in the district.

Manchanda again retreated that the party would not alliance with any other political party in the state to contest elections. He claimed that the strength of the BJP was increasing.

Taking a dig at the UPA led Congress government, he said, the government had failed on all fronts. According to him the farmers were committing suicide due to faulty policies of the government.

He claimed that only the BJP could provide a welfare government both in the state and at Centre. He said the Bhupinder Singh Hooda led Congress government was government of property dealers.

Addressing a public meeting in Chhachhrouli here Manchanda said the Union government had failed in tackling terrorists. He said several cities of the country had become soft targets for the terrorist attacks.

He said the Congress humbled in Gujarat and Himachal Pardesh assembly elections and even then the party was not ready to correct its policies.

Manchanda also addressed public meetings at Bilaspur, Jagadhri and Yamunanagar.

Fatehabad, February 25
Former Haryana minister Sampat Singh today alleged that the state government had jeopardised the interests of state farmers by conceding the demand of closure of the Bhakra Canal at a time when irrigation of rabi crops was needed the most.

Talking to mediapersons here, Sampat Singh said the Bhakra Canal had been closed from February 24 for a week, ostensibly for repair and maintenance.

He said it was not unusual for the canal to be closed for maintenance, but what was strange was its timing. He said, earlier, the canal was closed around April and October, when water was least needed in fields.

The INLD leader said February end was the peak time when irrigation of the wheat and gram crops was needed the most, but the government had put the interests of the farmers on back seat by agreeing to the demand of the Punjab government at this time.

Sampat Singh also alleged that the supply of Bhakhra waters had already decreased during the present government from the 10,800 cusecs to 8,500 cusecs due to lackadaisical attitude of the state government, but now that had come down to 5,000 cusecs due to closure.

He maintained that though the canal had been closed for a week, its impact would remain for a month.

Yamunanagar, February 25
Chhapar village of Mustfabad block here become the country’s first village today where smart identity cards were distributed under the ‘Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna’ to BPL families. A total of 60 beneficiaries were given the cards.

Anil Swarup, managing director, ministry of labour and employment said this during the smart identity card distribution function held at government high school of the village.

He said Yamunanagar district would be the first district where the yojna would be implemented from April 1. Under the yojna, the beneficiaries will get a health insurance of Rs 30,000. ICICI Lombard has been selected as the insurance provider.

Deputy commissioner Nitin Kumar Yadav said the officials concerned had given training to implement the scheme. He said the card contains all required information about the family of the beneficiary.

Additional deputy commissioner Narinder Singh told the villagers to preserve the card or else they would have to spend Rs 30 to get a duplicate card.

Dr Robert, a representative of the World Bank, Manyank Mishra, national president of the ICICI Bank, Dr Rajbir Singh of ESI Hospital and Ramesh Gupta, district information officer were also present on the occasion.

Chandigarh, February 25
The Haryana government has wound up the state telephone board. Its functions have been divided into three categories for implementation with the chief secretary given important powers in matters relating to official phones.

Cases to be decided with the approval of the chief secretary's office will include the retention of telephones installed at the residences of officers after their retirement or during earned leave and the training period out of headquarters or out of India. Cases of approval of any addition or alteration in the existing list of the entitled categories of offices and officers provided with telephones in their offices and at their residences will also fall in this category. Cases of fixing the ceiling of local calls for the telephones installed at the residences of the officers will also be included in this category. The providing of mobile phones will also be dealt with by the chief secretary's office.

The second category will comprise cases to be decided at the level of administrative departments. Cases to be dealt with at the level of such departments will include the installation of the main telephone connection and extension of the existing telephones and the main telephone.Cases coming under this category include those relating to the shifting of telephones installed in the office for the use of an officer at the residence of the same officer and vice versa.

The third category of cases will be decided at level of administrative departments. Such cases will include the installation of an internal communication system and the exemption of recovery on account of excess local calls made by officers concerned from their residential phones.