Yamunanagar, December 10
To comply with high court directions, the National Highways Authority and the PWD have issued notice of demolition to the owners of 1,600 houses and shopping complexes situated along two state highways and two national highways passing through the district.

The notices state that the owners have violated the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act, 1963.

The Act prevents anyone from constructing any house or establishment near the highways. However, houses and shopping complexes within the municipal council limit and the lal dora have been exempted from demolition.

Both the highways authority and the PWD have submitted a detailed report to deputy commissioner Amit Kumar Aggarwal in this regard.

Executive engineer (PWD) Sube Singh said notices had been served on those who had violated the Act on the Saharanpur-Kurukshetra highway and the Jagadhri-Bilaspur highway. The notice of demolition relating to National Highway-73 and National Highway 73-A had been served by the highways authority.

Residents along with the owners of commercial establishments have submitted a memorandum to the deputy commissioner pleading that demolition should not be carried out as it would render a number of families homeless and many others would lose their source of income.

Faridabad/Palwal, December 10
BSP MP from Muzzaffarnagar Munawwar Hasan met with a road accident in Murkaati village on the Delhi-Agra National Highway near Palwal in the wee hours today. He was rushed to Apollo Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

One of his friends, Satish Tomar, who was also in the ill-fated Tata Safari, was rushed to a local private hospital in Palwal from where he was taken to Central Hospital in Faridabad. He is in a coma.

Two security personnel were present in the vehicle of the MP. One of them received minor injuries in the accident.

The MP was on the way to Delhi from Muzzaffarnagar to attend the Parliament session which got under way today.

His Tata Safari rammed into an empty trailer in Murkaati village. SP of Palwal Rajender Singh reached the spot and said the accident might have been caused due to fog in the morning.

Faridabad, December 10
Riding high on its claimed success of its first phase of the Lok Sabha poll campaigning in the Faridabad constituency, which ended today, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will enter the second phase from December 12.

The state general secretaries of the BSP, Suraj Pal "Ammu", Amrit Pal Sharma and Shreechand Gudrana, along with party nominee and former national cricketer Chetan Sharma, said the campaigning would now percolate down to the booth level. Committees would be formed in about 1,070 booths in this parliamentary constituency, which had nine assembly segments. The booth-level committees were strategically important so as to ensure the casting of votes in a proper way on the day of the election.

Chetan Sharma said the first phase the campaigning concentrated on meetings and mass-contact programmes.

Chetan Sharma, who met mediapersons at the end of the first phase of the campaigning, said he first wanted to have a first-hand feel of the problems of the people before making public statements. He said Faridabad had lost its sheen and fallen miles behind in the race of development when compared to other satellite towns in the country.

He said he would take up issues such as the falling infrastructural standards of the city, rising unemployment and deteriorating law and order during his poll campaign.” Bijli, paani and sadak" would be the main poll planks of his party.

In response to a question he said he would take up the issue of giving administrative control on the Agra canal to the Haryana government if his party won the election from here. At present administrative control lay with the BSP government

in Uttar Pradesh. Also, he would take up the issue of a railway link between Palwal and Mewat.

Karnal, December 10
Bairsal village, 10 km from here, came alive this evening as hundreds of human rights activists participated in “Fire up for human rights” campaign by lighting a candle to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The event was organised in Haryana by Nishan, a voluntary organisation, in collaboration with Amnesty International as part of international efforts to bring the state on the global map in its struggle for human rights. Volunteers from different parts of the state converged on Bairsal village and took a pledge not to remain mute spectators to injustice and human rights violations.

There were confirmed reports of “fire up” events taking place simultaneously in 100 cities and towns in 27 countries and Amnesty International supporters signing up for adopting the “Passport for Human Rights”, a spokesman for Nishan said.

Deputy Commissioner, Karnal, B.S. Malik also administered a “human rights pledge” to employees at a function in his office today.

YAMUNANAGAR: “Every citizen must be aware not only about his rights but also his duties. No way should one misuse laws for personnel benefits. About 30 to 40 per cent of the cases against husbands filed in courts turn out to be false,” said Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) Rajiv Goyal while addressing a seminar on “So many protection laws for women - threat to human rights” on World Human Rights Day at Guru Nanak Girls College here on Wednesday.

Addressing the gathering, executive director of Utthan, an NGO, Anju Vajpayee said there was need for creating a balance as many protection laws for women were now being misused. “If nothing is done then soon the government will need to make special laws for men’s protection”.

REWARI: Senior police officials of the district participated in a district-level conference of the police department held to mark Human Rights Day in the New Police LineS complex here on Wednesday.

Asserting that all human beings had a right to live a life of liberty in accordance with their aspirations and wishes, Ram Singh Bishnoi, SP, urged the police personnel to give a patient hearing to complainants and take appropriate action on complaints submitted by them to their satisfaction.

On the occasion the police officials and other police personnel also took a pledge to sincerely follow the tenets of human rights as enshrined in the Constitution.

Fatehabad, December 10
The woman, who had levelled allegations of illegal confinement and rape against Santokh Singh, a private school teacher of Mohamadpur Rohi village in this district, today told the police that she was no more interested in pursuing the case.

The woman left for Delhi with her husband and three-month-old baby.

Preliminary investigations by the police have revealed that the woman had come to live with Santokh Singh on her own, after she had an altercation with her husband Rajan Gupta and was thrown out of her house in Delhi.

The woman, in her early twenties, had lodged an FIR in the local sadar police station against Santokh Singh (46) accusing him of keeping her in his illegal confinement for the past nine days and raping her repeatedly after drugging her.

She had alleged that Rajni, a woman, who lived in her neighbourhood in the Paharganj area of Delhi, was responsible for her plight.

She alleged that she had slept at the residence of Rajni for a night on November 30, where she gave her milk laced with drugs and she found her locked in a room in Mohamadpur Rohi village the next day.

The police had booked Santokh Singh under sections 328, 343, 376 and 511 of the IPC and begun investigation.

Santokh Singh had maintained that he procured the woman for Rs 28,000 to marry her as he could not find a bride for him due to his physical handicap. He maintained that he had married the woman in a gurdwara on December 1.

When the police contacted Rajni on her telephone number provided by the woman, she immediately volunteered to come to Fatehabad to clear the mist around the case.

She told the police that the woman had come to her with her three-month-old baby and told her that her husband had thrown her out of their house and she had no place to live.

Rajni told the police that the woman pleaded with her to make some arrangement for her living and she was ready to marry anyone to fend for herself and her infant daughter.

She maintained that the woman had married Santokh Singh on her own will but was now levelling these allegations because her former husband Rajan had agreed to take her back and she, too, could not adopt to the village life.

Confirming the developments, Yogesh Kumar, SHO of the Sadar police station, Fatehabad, said the woman and Rajan had approached the police in the morning today to inform that they did not want to pursue the case registered against Santokh Singh.

“The police took the woman to the local courts to get her statement registered under section 164 of the CrPC, but the court has turned down her request as the FIR was registered on her own statement,” the SHO added.

“The crimes of rape and illegal confinement being cognisable and non-compoundable offences and no compromise being legally admissible, the police will have to proceed with the case in the court of law,” he said.

Gurgaon, December 10
It was an “unusual marriage”, solemnised in a jail complex. After all it was the marriage of a life convict. Having already spent 13 of his 20-year jail term for murdering a fellow villager, Surinder, alias Sonu, married his widowed sister-in-law Sunita in the presence of a tehsildar and the jail superintendent. Three kids, born to Sunita from her earlier marriage with Sonu’s deceased brother, were witness to the marriage ceremony inside the Bhondsi prison.

Forty-year-old Sonu has at least 35 cases pending against him and he has been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in two cases.

He told The Tribune that he decided to marry his brother’s widow as he wanted to join the mainstream and thought she could serve the family more then any other woman as she knew them well.

His family got permission for marriage from a court in Chandigarh.

Tehsildar Sona registered his marriage and became the witness in the presence of the jail superintendent.

Sunita’a kids came there along with her brother and sister-in-law and Sonu’s sister came along with her uncle. Sonu had five brothers, two of whom were killed. The 35-year-old Sunita is his elder brother Naresh’s widow, who was murdered in 1996.

Hailing from Sermal village in Panipat, Sonu had picked up a fight with his neighbour in his village and killed him in a fit of rage.

Sonu has been convicted in several cases, including murder, rape and theft. Till now he has changed 65 prisons.

He is an undertrial in five cases in Karnal, Rohtak, Gurgaon, Delhi and Haryana.

Sonu said he could not see the plight of his brother’s kids and decided to take their father's place.

Sunita said she was happy to marry Sonu.

R.K. Yadav, jail superintendent, said Sonu’s family had applied to the Punjab and Haryana High Court for the marriage and was granted permission following which the marriage was solemnised today.

Chandigarh, December 10
Advocating harmonious Centre-state relations, Justice M.M. Punchhi, chairman of the commission for Centre-state relation, today called for “stronger” states as a strong Centre could exist only when the states were strong.

“The accommodation of regional aspirations within the overarching framework of country’s unity is the very foundation of a successful federal structure,” Justice Punchhi said, while addressing the north-western regional workshop on Centre-state relations in India at Panjab University here today.

He said India needed to respond to the far-reaching changes of fundamental importance having a bearing on the quality of life of its people and good governance was key to managing this transition successfully.

“Harmonious Centre-state relations occupy a significant place in this task,” he asserted.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda advocated inter-basin transfer of river waters without conflict saying that the ambitious project for inter-linking of all major rivers depended on it.

Hooda favoured increasing the share of the states in the divisible pool to 50 per cent instead of 30.5 per cent as recommended by the 12th Finance Commission. Hooda wanted that the centrally-sponsored schemes should be formulated keeping in view the unique set of priorities and problems of each state for optimum utilisation of resources. Alleging imbalance between the allocation of fiscal resources and responsibilities between the central and state governments in the country, he complained that the Central government was endowed with most of the elastic and buoyant sources of revenue while the state governments had been assigned wide range of functions and responsibilities without enough resources.

“To resolve the problem of fiscal federalism, we need to devise a fiscal devolution mechanism which helps the state governments to balance their resources with expenditure,” he said.

He asserted that consequent to the recommendations of the 12th Finance Commission, 30.5 pr cent of the total taxes, collected by the Centre, were devolved on the states. Terming it as inadequate, he said there was, in fact, a vertical imbalance in the capacity of the states to raise revenue and the expenditure obligations on them.

The states, on an average, raise about 34 per cent of revenue and incur 57 per cent of expenditure. Therefore, it was essential that the share of the states in the divisible pool be increased to 50 per cent, he added.

Chandigarh, December 10
Haryana’s Animal Husbandry Department is striving to make dairying a full-fledged industry by introducing the concept of hi-tech dairies in the state.

These dairies are being developed with a two-pronged purpose of ensuring the availability of good quality germ plasm as also making all modern production practices available to farmers for clean milk production.

“So far, most of the dairying exists only in the unorganised sector and is growing haphazardly as a subsidiary sector. We are extending the scheme of establishing hi-tech dairies to all those farmers who have 20 or more animals. The target is to set up 400 such dairies within this financial year. This being the first year, we are giving some relaxation in the setting up of dairies,” explains, the director-general, animal husbandry, Dr K.S. Dangi.

With a gestation period of nearly three years, the hi-tech dairies’ immediate benefit will be the production of clean milk by way of modern practices such as machine milking, scientific rearing and breeding and a clean environment for the animals. Later, as the herd multiplies, the farmer will start getting returns.

While the structural design for the dairies is ready with the department, it will be passed on to the farmer next year. These dairies involve a cost of Rs 11 lakh in which the government will give a subsidy of Rs 1.5 lakh or 15 per cent, whichever is higher. While banks will give a waiver of 2 per cent loan since this is covered under agricultural activity, half per cent loan will further be reduced for women entrepreneurs seeking to make an investment in hi-tech dairies. Further, a concession of 1 per cent on regular payments will be granted on term loans only on a yearly basis at the end of the financial year.To discourage defaulters, it has been decided that in the case of default on any instalment, the concession already granted will be withdrawn and no concessions will be granted in future.

“We are particularly targeting young entrepreneurs for adopting modern techniques in the dairy industry. However, if a farmer does not have 20 or more animals and two or three dairy farmers want to set up these hi-tech dairies in collaboration, the scheme will be available to them also,” Dangi explains.

The giving of loans for the setting up of hi-tech dairies has already started. However, setting up a completely hi-tech dairy with machines will still take some time though the number of such dairies will grow substantially in the next financial year.