Fatehabad, February 27
Probe into the alleged scam of the distribution of funds under the Indira Awaas Yojna (IAY) in Ratia and Bhattu Kalan blocks of the district has opened a Pandora’s box.

The records of the block development officer (BDO) showed that some persons had received funds thrice, but in fact those persons had received the money only once.

The authorities are contemplating criminal and departmental action against officials involved in the scam following the probe.

Under the IAY, the union ministry of rural development provides a grant of Rs 25,000 each to a family living under the below poverty line and is amongst the poorest of poor in the village for the construction of pucca houses.

But, no family is entitled to get the benefit again in its lifetime, once the benefit has been received by it.

Records of the BDO office revealed that Jasmail Kaur, wife of Basant Singh of Badalgarh village in Ratia block, had been paid Rs 25,000 twice and Rs 15,000 once under the scheme, but in fact the money reached her only once.

However, Jasmail Kaur could not have been provided Rs 65,000 as shown in the records as money under the IAY scheme could be given to a beneficiary only once in his or her lifetime and Rs 25000 is the fixed amount which is paid.

Similarly, Nangat Ram Gosain of Jandwala Sottar village is shown to have received cheques of Rs 25,000 each on two occasions, while he actually received the payment only once.

Kalawanti, wife of Om Parkash of Dadupur village, is another case in which the money actually received and the disbursed money shown in records is different.

The district authorities have begun a probe into the funds released under the scheme during the past two years. Additional deputy commissioner C.G. Rajnikanthan, whose office is probing the scam, said the probe might take two or three more days.

Chandigarh, February 27
Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Vijender Jain today directed all parties “not to run a parallel media trial” in what has come to be known as the HCS selection scam case.

Speaking for the bench comprising him and Justice K.S. Ahluwalia, during the resumed hearing of the case, Justice Jain said these things would not pressurise the court and would serve no purpose.

As the hearing resumed, counsel for the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and former advocate-general Ashok Aggarwal moved an application seeking the court’s permission to inspect the answersheets of all selected candidates in the HCS and allied services examination.

He said since all sorts of allegations regarding various irregularities had been made in the inspection reports filed by Mohan Jain, counsel for the petitioner Karan Singh Dalal, and Sanjiv Bansal, counsel for the state, the HPSC should be allowed to inspect the answersheets so that it could reply to the allegations.

Accepting his prayer, the bench allowed the commission to inspect the answersheets.

The court also accepted the pleas of various candidate-respondents to inspect their own answersheets.

However, a similar request by counsel for former chairman of the commission K.C. Bangar was denied.

The case will now come up for hearing on March 19. 

Ambala, February 27
Riding high on the victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, the state BJP has categorically ruled out any alliance with the INLD or the Haryana Janhit Congress.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Atam Prakash Manchanda, president of the state unit of the BJP, said the party high command had approved the proposal of the state unit to go it alone in the next elections.

He alleged that the UPA government and the state government had failed on all fronts and lost its credibility among the common man.

To a question, he said the Haryana Janhit Congress did not have support of the public. Besides, it would only hurt the Congress. He alleged that the state government did not fulfil its poll promises. He said shortage of power had been forcing entrepreneurs to shift their units to other states.

Former MP Rattan Lal Kataria said local MP Selja has failed to get a package in the rail budget for Ambala.

REWARI: The BJP’s “vijay sankalp yatra”, led by its sate general secretary, Capt Abhimanyu, entered Rewari on Tuesday night.

The yatra was given a warm welcome by party activists at Dharuhera where Capt Abhimanyu and several other prominent party leaders flayed the Congress-led UPA government as well as the Hooda government in the state for their “anti-people” policies while addressing a public meeting.

The yatra, which started from Faridabad district on February 24, will culminate at Meham Chaubisi on March 4.

Chandigarh, February 27
Haryana’s outgoing chief secretary Promilla Issar will shortly be appointed chairman of the recently constituted Haryana Environmental Impact Assessment Authority after she retires on Feb 29.

The authority, constituted by the central government in consultation with the state government, will give clearance to construction projects on the basis of their processes and pollution levels up to a certain level. The clearance for highly polluting units and projects, however, still continues to be with the Government of India.

This authority is different from the Pollution Control Board which checks projects only for pollution levels. The job of the authority is to study the impact of any project on the surroundings and suggest a pollution management plan for least impact on the environment.

Though the notification of the constitution of the authority was made in 2006, a number of states are still in the process of constituting these as per the directions of the ministry of forests and environment while th authorities in other states like Punjab have already begun work.

Meanwhile, addressing her last press conference as chief secretary, Issar said she was looking forward to writing on social issues post-retirement and had a “satisfying stint” as the CS where she had the opportunity to be instrumental in getting a number of projects, pending at the level of the Government of India, cleared for various departments.

Speaking to mediapersons, she said Haryana had also raced ahead of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in the preparation of Commonwealth Games scheduled in 2010. The preparations were on the right track for making availability of 10,000 rooms during this prestigious international event.

To a question, she said if “accommodating” a retired bureaucrat was possible for the government, it could not be wrong though she chose to keep mum on the new assignment that awaited her on retirement. Maintaining that she was never subjected to any pressure to do what she did not want to do, Issar added that whatever happened to an individual at his workplace had a lot to do with the person’s attitude.

Chandigarh, February 27
A high-level allotment committee of the Haryana government has allotted industrial plots to 51 units in various industrial estates developed by the State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

The committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of P.K. Chaudhery, principal secretary and financial commissioner, industries and commerce, to consider the allotment of industrial plots to prestigious projects having an investment of Rs 30 crore and above.

When implemented, these projects will bring an investment of Rs 2,300 crore besides providing direct employment to more than 5,000 persons. A total of 229.75 acres of industrial plots have been allotted in the Growth Centre, Bawal, Phase II, and the industrial estates at Barhi and Saha.

Rajeev Arora, MD, HSIIDC, said here today that the allotments had been made in diverse fields of automotive components, electronic items, fabric and readymade garments, IT, prefabricated sheets, filter and air intake systems, metal fabrication and metal finish, polypropylene compounding and injection moulding, corrugated boxes, fabrication of telecom towers, home furnishing and pickles.

Asian Colour Coated Ispat Ltd has been allotted land in the Growth Centre, Bawal ,Phase II, for setting up a project to manufacture cold rolled and closed annealed steel.

The project cost has been estimated at Rs 163 crore.

Munjal Auto Industries Ltd has been allotted land at Bawal for setting up two projects for the manufacture of exhaust mufflers for automobiles involving a capital cost of Rs 36.16 crore. Bajaj Motors has been allotted land at Bawal for setting up a unit for manufacturing auto and allied components with an investment of Rs 89.07 crore.

IST Ltd has also been allotted land at Bawal for setting up a unit for the manufacture and export of precision auto components. The capital cost of the project will come to Rs 57.98 crore. Arrow International Pvt Ltd has been allotted land at Bawal for setting up a unit for the manufacturing CFL & electronic ballast with a capital cost of Rs 36.97 crore.

Mann and Hummel Filter Pvt Ltd has been allotted land at Bawal for setting up a unit for manufacturing filter and air intake systems for automobiles with a capital cost of Rs 103.64 crore. Two projects of automotive components are being set up at Bawal by Lumax Industires to manufacture automotive lighting components with an investment of Rs 80.73 crore.

Jay Auto Components has been allotted land for setting up a project for the manufacture of automotive components at Bawal with a capital cost of Rs 36.40 crore. Jay Ushin Ltd has been allotted land for setting up a project for the manufacture of automotive components with an investment of Rs 49.56 crore at Bawal. Varun Texport has been allotted land for seting up a project to manufacture grey fabrics for bedsheets with an investment of Rs 100 crore at Bawal. Inox Engg Pvt Ltd has been allotted land for setting up a project for metal fabrication and metal finish at Bawal.

Among the companies allotted industrial plots at Barhi and Saha are Frost Falcon Distilleries for setting up a brewery with an investment of Rs 59.20 crore, G.S. Export for manufacturing terry towels, Rockhill Home Fashions Pvt Ltd for the manufacture and export of tufted rugs, Srishti Metal Pvt Ltd for the fabrication of telecom towers with an investment of Rs 43.79 crore and K.K. Loomtex Pvt Ltd for manufacturing fabrics and carpets.

Mount Shivalik Breweries Ltd has been allotted land for setting up a brewery with an investment of Rs 63.06 crore and Pachranga International Pvt Ltd of Panipat has been allotted land at Saha for setting up a unit to manufacture tomato paste and allied products.

Sonepat, February 27
A criminal case under sections 393 and 170 of the IPC has been registered at the local Civil Lines police station against block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) Narender Dhul and panchayat secretary Anoop for attempting to loot assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Jagdish and Gurdeep, a resident of the local Vikas Nagar, on February 15.

However, no arrest has been made so far as both accused are reportedly at large.

According to a complaint lodged by the ASI with the police, after performing duty at the Surajkund Crafts Mela, he, along with Gurdev, was waiting at the Murthal bus stop on the GT Road on February 15 late at night to board a bus to Sonepat. Around 10.15 pm, Narender Dhul and Anoop came in a car (HR-10J-4406) and offered them a lift up to Sonepat.

After reaching Sector 15, they drove the car to a deserted place and attempted to loot the duo. When the cop and the other fellow resisted the attempt, they were allegedly beaten up. However, they managed to escape and informed the police.

The police said the case was registered after proper verification and the alleged accused would be arrested soon.

Rohtak, February 27
The authorities of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here have rubbished the allegations of paper leakage or any other irregularities in the entrance examination for MD/MS/MDS and PG diploma courses.

In a statement issued here today, MDU vice-chancellor Prof R.P. Hooda asserted that the examination had been conducted in a fair manner amidst foolproof secrecy measures.

“Yet, some disgruntled candidates have launched a tirade to defame the university by levelling such false and baseless allegations,” he maintained.

Ruling out any possibility of a re-test or re-evaluation, the V-C pointed out that sufficient double-checking and cross-verification had already been done to remove any doubt on the scores obtained by the candidates.

Controller of examinations at MDU Sukhbir Singh also reiterated that the exam had been conducted with utmost sincerity and responsibility and there was no scope of any malpractice.

He said to keep the faith of students and people in the university system intact, the university administration had decided that any candidate could come and personally check his or her answer sheet.

On the other hand, the agitated candidates, who claim to be affected by the selection of “undeserving” candidates “on the basis of their money power”, plan to take out a protest march from the PGIMS campus to MDU premises tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the INLD today demanded a CBI inquiry into the entire episode. Addressing a news conference here today, Jitender Balhara, district president of the party’s youth wing, held the state government responsible for the “bungling”. He said the exam should be cancelled and a fresh test conducted.

Faridabad, February 27
Contractors associated with the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) today resorted to agitation outside the gate of the civic body demanding timely payment for works completed by them.

The contractors staged a dharna and threatened that they would not take assignments from the MCF if their payments were not released in a week’s time.

President of the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad Contractors Welfare Association Giriraj Singh said the contractors would continue their stir until their demand was met.

Superintending engineer of the MCF N.K. Katar, however, said the civic body had cleared all bills of 2007 in November last. He said certain procedures had to be followed before payments were released. He said the civic body would follow the rules and would not be influenced by any pressure from the contractors.

A contractor had committed suicide yesterday by hanging himself. His family members had alleged that he was frustrated over the delay in payments by the MCF. According to them, the dues were more than Rs 6 lakh. He was facing humiliation in the market as he was unable to pay his creditors.

There are about 80 contractors associated with the civic body. Giriraj Singh said the total sum against bills of contractors passed from December to February was around Rs 18 crore.