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Rise in temperature, gain for oil companies
Tension as SGPC deploys task force in gurdwaras
Dera head fails to give ‘satisfactory’ answers
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They need support, says Rao
Behrampur, December 3 “Disabled people are always eager to work for their nation and can do anything for it. For this they don’t need pity but require our support,” said central defence minister Rao Inderjeet Singh and added that to assist them was the biggest “dharma.”
Residents form panel to save establishments
High Court
Patil’s resignation doesn’t ensure safety: Sidhu
Students protest against poor exam results
Stone of Children’s Park laid
Man stabs mother to death
Life term for killing wife
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Rise in temperature, gain for oil companies
Chandigarh, December 3 This advice has come from none other than the Haryana Petroleum Dealers Association (HPDA), whose members stand to incur losses by selling petrol and diesel in the morning and evening. The suggestion is based on the simple scientific principle of contraction and expansion with the fall and rise of temperature. The association alleges that by misusing this principle, public-sector oil marketing companies (or their staff) are making huge money. These companies receive petrol and diesel by weight but sell to their dealers by volume at atmospheric temperature. General secretary of the association Ramesh Batra says the dealers should also get their supplies by weight and, in turn, they should sell by weight to consumers on the pattern of auto LPG. He says the oil companies are bound by the agreements signed with their dealers to supply petrol and diesel to them in accordance with the ISI specifications.The Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply and Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order, 1998, has laid down IS 2796:1995 specifications for petrol and IS 1460:1995 for diesel. As per these specifications, the companies should bill their dealers for the quantity of petrol and diesel as if their temperature is 15 degrees Centigrade. Since in practice the products are supplied at atmospheric temperature, the 1998 order, as amended in 2004, gives a table of density of these products at various temperatures so that the companies can correspond them to 15 degrees Centigrade. The association says for an increase of every 1 degree in temperature above 15 degrees Centigrade, the gain to the companies is 10.2 litres of diesel in a tanker of 12,000-litre capacity, while in petrol the gain is 15 litres after every 12,000 litres. Since most of the storage depots of the companies are in the plains, usually the temperature at which the tankers are loaded is much higher than 15 degrees Centigrade. Batra alleges that the companies do not show this excess quantity as surplus in their accounts. Nobody knows where these are siphoned off, he says. Interestingly, when the companies transfer their stocks to each other, they do it by weight. Even to the defence sector and the railways, the supplies are made by weight. Batra says the public sector transport undertakings are at a disadvantage because they get supplies from the oil companies by volume. If these undertakings insist on taking oil supplies by weight, they would make considerable savings in fuel charges. The Tribune has in its possession an invoice regarding the transfer of 12,000 litres of petrol by the Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPC) to the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPC). Since company-to-company transanctions are by weight, the BPC billed the HPC for 11,783 litres instead of 12,000 litres. The BPC supplied petrol to HPC in tanker no. UP-32T 7236. The HPC further despatched the same quantity to its three dealers in the same tanker. The dealers were billed for 12,000 litres. Batra says till a few years ago, the staff of storage depots of the companies used to charge Rs 200 per tanker if a dealer wanted it to be loaded early in the morning, when the temperature is near 15 degrees Centigrade. When contacted, deputy general manager of the Panipat depot of the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) S.S. Mishra said there was no irregularity in the sale of petroleum products by the public sector oil marketing companies. He said the companies were supplying oil to all regions of the country where temperatures varied from sub-zero to over 45 degrees Centigrade. The companies were not required under law to supply petroleum products at a particular temperature. He said the dealers were unjustifiably raising the issue, particularly so when the companies compensated them in the form of evaporation and handling losses. |
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Tension as SGPC deploys task force in gurdwaras
Karnal, December 3 Ruling out further talks on separate gurdwara committee with the SGPC, the HSGPC (ad hoc) had announced to take over any gurdwara anytime at any place after its meeting in Kurukshetra last week. President of the HSGPC (ad hoc) Jagdish Singh Jinda alleged that armed men deployed by the SGPC to guard seven important gurdwaras in the state had caused panic among people. He said these bullying tactics would not work as teams of workers to take over the control of gurdwaras in the state were being prepared at block levels and there was no change in the action plan. The HSGPC had served 30 days’ ultimatum on the SGPC and the Haryana government for the constitution of a separate SGPC for the state, which expired on October 8 and later the action was deferred by a month to afford time to the SGPC to work out some negotiated settlement. However, the SGPC did not initiate any move for formal talks even after the expiry of the new deadline of November 20 and inclusion of only one member from Haryana in the new SGPC exposed the hidden agenda, provoking the HSGPC to translate its threat into action. Jinda said the Haryana government would have to pay the price for letting down the Haryana Sikhs by not honouring the election promise to constitute a separate SGPC. He further said Haryana Sikhs would oppose any political party in Lok Sabha elections having an alliance with the Alkali Dal. |
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Dera head fails to give ‘satisfactory’ answers
Chandigarh, December 3 The team from Bathinda questioned him with regard to the case registered against him for hurting the sentiments of the Sikhs by imitating Guru Gobind Singh, which had led to the flaring of communal passions in the state last year. Led by Bathinda SP (detective) Ajay Maluja, DSP (Talwandi Sabo) Surinderpal Singh and SHO (Kotwali, Bathinda), the team members questioned the dera chief for five hours in the office of the ADGP, computer and wireless. According to sources, even though the team grilled the controversial chief for five hours, they were unable to get any information other than what had already been supplied to the police during questioning at Gurmeet Ram Rahim’s dera in Sirsa in Haryana earlier. Though members of the investigation team refused to comment on the questions asked, sources said the dera head was repeatedly asked as to how he got the idea to hold a ceremony to make his disciples partake of the ‘jaam-e-insan’, modelled on the ‘amrit’ partaken by followers of Guru Gobind Singh who created the ‘khalsa’ (the pure) after this ritual. The dera chief reportedly said the ‘sangat’ (his followers) had made the entire arrangements. Besides this, they said, the dera head was asked from where the ‘chola’ (long garment) worn by him had been brought and designed. The ‘baba’ was also asked about the reasons why he chose to wear the ‘kalgi’, a symbol associated with the tenth guru, for the ceremomy. He was also asked whether there was any move to get a horse and a hawk, two more symbols associated with the guru, for the controversial ceremony hosted by him at Salabatpura village in May last year. The Bathinda police had, earlier, registered a case against Gurmeet Ram Rahim under section 295 (a) (hurting religious sentiments). He had subsequently moved the Punjab and Haryana High court seeking anticipatory bail in the case. On November 27, the court had ruled that the petitioner should appear for questioning before the investigating team. The investigating team will submit its findings to the high court on December 15. The entire questioning was carried out without any law and order problem with the Chandigarh police not allowing thousands of dera followers who had gathered in Sector 25 to move out of there. The dera chief arrived with a small entourage for the questioning session. |
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They need support, says Rao
Behrampur, December 3 He was here to attend the annual function at AICC Captain Chandanlal Blind School on the occasion of World Disability Day. He said the government had started many new plans for the rights of disabled, including pension, scholarships, unemployment allowance for educated disabled, jobs for blind and also helping by providing them duplicate body parts. J.K.
Kaul, general manger, All India Confederation of Blind, who helped in starting this school in 1994, said, “The day dedicated to the people who cannot see and it is the effort of this institute that they are able to work at various places.” Swami Shradhanand from Daroli ashram stated that this institute was helping these disabled to tie up with national mainstream and added that a person could become big but till the time he does not work for country and its culture his life is not complete. At the occasion defence minister also donated Rs 3 lakhs to the institute. YAMUNANAGAR: The state government is completely committed for the uplift of the physically challenged persons. The Chief Minister has already increased the service from 58 years to 60 years of the government employee having 60 per cent disability. Besides it, the Chief Minister has also announced Rs 300 scholarship and insurance scheme to physically challenged persons, said the parliamentary secretary Krishna Pandit here on Wednesday. She was addressing the physically challenged persons after distributing 315 different items include artificial limbs, wheel chairs, hearing aid at a special function organised on world disabled day at the Red Cross Bhawan in HUDA, Sector-17 here. She also gave Rs 50,000 to built special park for the physically disabled here. While DC Amit Kumar Aggarwal said the physically disabled had all capability like other persons, but we needed to give them chance so that they could prove themselves. FATEHABAD: Medical certificates were issued to over 50 differently able persons on the occasion of the world Disabled day. DC J.S Ahlawat, who was chief guest of the health camp organised on this occasion, distributed tricycles to as many as 15 differently abled persons. SIRSA: DC S.K Goyal distributed tricycle to 18 differently abled persons in the district on Wednesday. Speaking to the differently abled persons, Goyal said the government had started several schemes for the welfare of differently abled persons. He said in the current year, 60 tricycles and 24 hearing aids had been distributed among the differently abled persons. He called upon people to come forward for providing help to such persons. |
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Make Gurgaon friendly to differently abled: MP
Gurgaon, December 3 “On this special day, let us all take a solemn pledge to turn this disability into ability,” said Neelam Jolly, chairperson of Vishwas School for special children, which had organised the event. Exhorting people from all walks of life to support the cause of differently abled children and adults and help them lead a normal life, she said there was a need to sensitise and mobilise people in this direction. “It is really heartening to see that in this era of pessimism and cynicism, there are some persons engaged in the commendable task of caring for special children and other such ventures,” observed Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda, who was the chief guest on the occasion. The monthly allowance of Rs 600 per month given to differently abled persons in the state was the highest in the country, he maintained. Only last night, he said, the Chief Minister had announced four new schemes for the differently abled persons. The MP directed the top district and HUDA officials present on the occasion to go in for a private-public partnership model and take necessary measures to make Gurgaon a disabled-friendly city by suitably modifying the designs of parks, parking lots, shopping places, public transport and other such facilities. Swati Shukla, who heads the association of parents of special children at Vishwas School, put forward several practical problems encountered by them in day-to-day life. These included lack of implementation of government welfare schemes at the grassroots level and lack of proper transport and medical facilities for the challenged children. Hooda assured them of all possible help and support in this regard from the government. Rajiv Raturi, director, Human Rights Law Network, himself a visually challenged person, asserted that several laws had been enacted for the benefit of differently abled , but their benefit seldom reached the deserving individuals. |
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Residents form panel to save establishments
Panipat, December 3 The residents gathered near the Bijonl canal on the Panipat-Gohana highway and formed a Save Shop-House-Factory committee to voice their concerns. The residents lamented that the law, under which the orders had been passed by the high court, was enacted way back in 1963 and many among them were not even aware of such a law when they constructed their establishments along the important roads. Members of the newly formed committee rued that the state government should have initiated some corrective measures in this regard so that residents did not have to incur huge loses due to the demolition of their establishments. They said the government should now initiate steps and find out a middle path to the problem being faced
by them. On the occasion, Congress MP from the Karnal constituency Arvind Sharma reached the spot and held a meeting with the residents. After listening their grievances, the MP assured the gathering that he would take up the matter with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda so that a suitable solution could be found out without any contempt of the court. Following this, the locals took out a procession and marched up to the DC’s camp office and submitted a memorandum requesting the administration and the state government not to go ahead with the demolition drive till a suitable solution was
found out. It is pertinent to mention and after the Punjab and Haryana High Court passed the orders to bring down the illegal structures, the district administration had issued notices to all those whose establishments were within a distance of 30 meters from the main roads. |
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High Court
Chandigarh, December 3 A public interest litigation in the matter has been filed by Ambala-based Surinder Juneja. At the time of previous hearing, the Bench had suggested Rohtak range inspector-general of police to go into the matter and come forward with the action to be taken in the matter. The IG issued a notice conveying stoppage of five annual increment to the respondent inspector. The action, however, failed to make an impression on the Bench. The judges observed that the officer remained absent from duty for 133 days during the pendency of the rape case, yet the authorities concerned appeared to be going soft on him. Fixing December 8 as the next date of hearing, the Bench suggested that a proper charge sheet, holding him guilty, should be issued and a proper reply to the charge sheet be secured before proceeding further in the matter. Bail plea dismissed
Justice Harbans Lal today dismissed the bail plea of Avtar Singh of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda. He is an accused in the murder of ex-dera manager Ranjit Singh. The matter is under the CBI scanner. Justice Lal directed the court concerned to conclude the proceedings in the case within the next nine months. The accused had sought bail on the ground of prolonged trial. In a related development, the plea for handing over to the CBI the probe of ex-dera manager Faqir Chand’s murder, will come up for hearing on December 11 before Justice S.D.Anand. A petition in this regard has been filed by Ram Kishan Bishnoi of Dewan Khera village in Sirsa district. The petitioner wants the CBI to conduct probe into the murder at the alleged behest of dera head. Reference has been made to a television interview with Gobind Singh, former driver of the dera chief. |
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Patil’s resignation doesn’t ensure safety: Sidhu
Sirsa, December 3 He said in case we were to ensure that such attacks were not repeated in future, political leaders needed to change their mindset and attitude as mere changing faces at the helm of affairs was not going to solve the problem. Sidhu was talking to mediapersons at the residence of former Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala last night after returning from the election campaigning in Rajasthan. “India needs a firm and long term policy to combat terrorism. And for that all political parties should be taken into confidence. We need to take cue from the USA and to develop preventive mechanism in our country. After the 9/11, the US administration has not allowed the terrorists to see towards their shores. One does not dig a well when fire has already broken,” said Sidhu. He said if the people of the country had started loosing faith in their political leaders, they had every right to do so. “After all the political leaders have failed them. After every incident, people have been subjected the same stereotype statements regarding the strengthening of security, but things return to the square one in two days,” he added. “When the USA can kill its enemy Saddam Hussein in his den, why can not we tell the terrorists that they can not take us for granted. After all iron cuts iron” the BJP MP said. When his reaction was sought to the reported derogatory statements regarding women made by his party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Sidhu said he had not seen the statement of Naqvi so far. He added that Naqvi was a senior leader of the party and was well versed with the decorum of his language. The former cricketer said the Mumbai attacks were a big setback to the game of cricket in the country. |
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Students protest against poor exam results
Jind, December 3 Only 20 students out of 195 of these schools have passed the examinations. The students and their kin, who met the district authorities, demanded a recheck of the papers as they claimed certain irregularities in the marking process. The school authorities, on other hand, have described the change in the test pattern as the main reason of the debacle. There had been over hundred government schools of various levels in the district of which had been faced with shortage of skilled and experienced regular staff, especially for the senior classes. According to the memorandum submitted by the agitating students, who mainly hailed from Igrah and Haat villages in the district, the results of the first semester examinations of these government schools had been extremely poor and had left them totally shocked. They claimed that while the results in the last session had been good, the revelation that only five students out of 68 who appeared in the eight and matriculation standard exam at Igrah and just 15 students out of the total 127 had been able to clear the examinations, which had below any expectation and standard. They asked the authorities to get rechecking of the papers. But a senior teacher of one of the schools, however, claimed that change in examination pattern this time had been the main cause of the poor show, as majority of the students had no knowledge or practice of attempting the questions. |
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Stone of Children’s Park laid
Kaithal, December 3 After laying the foundation stone of the park here today, Randeep Singh said besides setting up swings and fountains, an open air theatre would also be constructed in the park to facilitate the presentation of plays and other entertainment programmes by artists. Local MLA and president of the All-India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress Shamsher Singh Surjewala, ADC Ramesh Verma and XEN of UHBVN S.K. Bansal were also present on the occasion. The minister accompanied by officials also inspected the construction work of the railway overbridge on the Kaithal-Jind road railway crossing here. He said the bridge would be ready by the end of September 2009, following which it would be opened for traffic. Shamsher Singh Surjewala said 12-14 feet wide roads would also be constructed on both sides of the bridge so that residents of the area did not face any difficulty. He said Rs 26 crore would be spent on the construction of the bridge. |
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Man stabs mother to death
Karnal, December 3 The matter was reported to the police by Nand Singh of Naval village and a case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered. In another incident, a body was found with injury marks in the fields this morning. The deceased has been identified as Deshraj. The deceased’s son, Raghuvinder, told the police that his father had gone to meet his friend near the local petrol pump last night, but did not return. He named five persons, Anil, Rajmal, Dinesh, Sanjeev and Ishwar, as suspects and said litigation was going on with them for quite sometime. |
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Life term for killing wife
Fatehabad, December 3 The convict will have to undergo a further imprisonment of three and a half years on his failure to pay the fine. Ram Singh allegedly killed his wife Chhinder Kaur on April 9, 2006, as she objected to his illicit relation
with a kin. In another case, the court convicted a man in a case of dowry death of his wife Sulochana. The convict, Parveen, along with his father Parbhu Dayal, mother Prem Devi and sister Sushma was tried under Sections 304-B and
498-A of the IPC. The court convicted Parveen today and acquitted others for want of evidence. |
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