Bhiwani, December 20
Irate villagers even today refused to cremate the two youths who were killed in alleged police firing in Kharak village on Thursday. A delegation of the villagers today went to the Chang airstrip, about 8 km from here, where Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had halted for a few minutes while on way to attend a rally at Jind. They met him and demanded justice in the firing episode.

The Chief Minister announced that a retired Judge of the high court would conduct a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances leading to the police firing, resulting in the death of the two youths.

Interacting with a committee formed by the villagers to seek justice in the matter, the Chief Minister assured the president of the committee, Col Baghdawat Singh, that action would be taken against those found guilty.

He urged the committee to help the government maintain peace in the village.

President of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee Phool Chand Mullana, DGP R.S. Dalal and ADGP P.V. Rathi were also present there.

Though the delegation returned with assurances of justice, villagers refused to cremate the two victims until “any substantial initiative is taken by the government in the matter”. Meanwhile, road traffic between Bhiwani and Kalanaur remained suspended for the third day today. Train services on the Bhiwani-Rohtak route also remained suspended as villagers sat in dharna on the railway track.

Additional police force has been deployed at the main crossings in Bhiwani also.

Chandigarh, December 20
The Haryana Power Utilities is allegedly using the farm subsidy component to cover up its huge transmission and distribution losses. It is believed that almost two-thirds of the farm subsidy bill of Rs 2,800 crore allegedly makes up for the losses incurred by the two power distribution companies. This has meant that Haryana now pays the highest power subsidy to the farm sector in the country --- more than even Punjab, where power is provided free of cost to farmers.

Though the Power Department denies that their losses are bridged with the power subsidy to farmers, a study conducted by the Agriculture Department suggests that there is overbilling by almost five times in calculating the farm subsidy. Even the state finance minister, Birender Singh, says the transmission and distribution losses are being passed on as power subsidy, which is causing a huge revenue loss to the state exchequer.

The Power Department, however, contends that the subsidy component has been fixed in accordance with the norms laid down by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC), after it fixed the number of hours for which power has to be supplied in both the kharif and rabi sowing seasons. “The huge power subsidy bill is on account of the unprecedented year-on-year growth of 20 per cent in power consumption in the agricultural sector, rather than because of the clubbing of losses with the farm subsidy,” says a senior official.

This year, Haryana has earmarked Rs 2,800 crore for power subsidy to the farm sector for the year 2008-09. Even Andhra Pradesh, which earlier had the highest power subsidy bill in the country, has earmarked Rs 2,385 crore for free power supply to farmers. From Rs 400 crore six years ago, it is a seven-fold leap for Haryana, which is paying an average of Rs 40,000 per tubewell for the nearly 4.70 lakh tubewells in the state.

Haryana, unlike neighbouring Punjab, does not dole out free power to farmers, but subsidises it at 25 paise per unit. Punjab is paying around Rs 2,300 crore for power subsidy this year, besides giving free power.

The Finance Department had earlier come up with a proposal of paying direct subsidy to the farmers. Birender Singh says that direct power subsidy, once introduced, will reduce the transmission and distribution losses which are passed on as power subsidy by the state power utilities.“Direct power subsidy will help reduce the power subsidy burden. We had asked the Power Department to examine how this could be implemented, but nothing has been done so far for its implementation,” he rues.

The Power Department, however, says that this will not be possible till the time all tubewell connections in the state are metered and the exact amount to be given to farmers can be worked out. At present, 60 per cent of the tubewells are unmetered, making it difficult to fix a basic slab of entitlement to subsidy. “Though we have asked the UHBVN and the DHBVN to have a pilot study on how direct subsidy can be given, it is difficult as the farmers getting unmetered power are not willing to get meters installed,” says an official. The solution, say officials of the Power Department, lies in segregating the rural domestic and agriculture feeders.

Yamunanagar, December 20
In view of a long-pending demand of the people of the district, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has given his clearance for the release of a Rs 100 crore grant for the maintenance and carpeting of roads, most of which have been declared unfit for the plying of vehicles, in the district.

The administration had submitted a detailed report on the poor condition of roads and the need of their urgent maintenance. In the report, which was submitted to the Chief Minister by deputy commissioner Amit Kumar Aggarwal, had highlighted the poor condition of the roads. The administration had submitted an approximately Rs 100 crore budget for roads in the whole district.

“The carpeting and maintenance of roads is the main demand and requirement of the people of the district. So all departments concerned have been directed to complete the work as soon as possible except National Highway 73-A. Work on all roads is expected to be completed before December 31,” the deputy commissioner said.

Rohtak, December 20
Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) has decided to grant a mercy chance to university candidates of the year 2000 onwards (except MBBS/BDS/BAMS/BHMS students) for clearing reappear examinations or for improvement of the score.

This decision was taken at the 152nd meeting of the Academic Council (AC) of MDU held recently under the chairmanship of the vice-chancellor, Dr R.P. Hooda.

The council approved the registration of 103 candidates in the PhD programme in various faculties. It also granted provisional affiliation to Gateway College of Architecture and Design, Sonepat. It also granted permission to Government College, Bhiwani, to start the PG diploma in guidance and counselling course.

The council also cleared provisional affiliation to 34 new colleges of education.

Radaur (Yamunanagar), December 20
The five-day Bharat Nirman mass awareness campaign launched by the ministry of information and broadcasting to create awareness among villagers regarding the policies and programmes of the Centre, which concluded here yesterday, failed to evoke a good response in the village.

The function appeared to be of a local level rather than a district-level mass awareness programme despite the fact that the chief guest was the commissioner, Ambala range, Mahender Kumar. He was accompanied by deputy commissioner Amit Kumar Aggarwal and additional deputy commissioner Narender Singh.

A visit to the mass awareness campaign by the Press Information Bureau (PIB) division of the ministry, where 50 stalls depicting various schemes were set up, reflected the absence of enough groundwork to spread timely awareness among the people about the programme.

There were not much visitors at the stalls. Children of primary local government schools were called to fill the space in the function. The children were brought to the function in the afternoon on Thursday. They were served meals by the organiser at 3.30 pm much after the chief guest left the venue.

Immediately after the departure of the chief guest, all villagers, who were called to the function, left the venue. Moreover, there was noting new at the stalls for the villagers. 

Gurgaon, December 20
Justice D.K. Jain of the Supreme Court inaugurated “Samadhan-2008”, “the biggest-ever series of statewide lok adalats in Haryana”, at the judicial complex here today.

In his address, Justice Jain underlined the significance of settling cases at the pre-litigation stage, stating that this would reduce the pendency of cases before the courts.

He lauded the effort made by Punjab and Haryana High Court for settling petty cases pending in Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh through mutual consent under this mega lok adalat.

Justice H.S. Bedi and Justice G.S. Singhvi of the apex court, Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice T.S. Thakur, executive chairman of the Haryana State Legal Service Authority Justice Adarsh Kumar Goyal and Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and Administrative Judge for Gurgaon Sessions Division Ashutosh Mohunto also addressed the gathering on the occasion.

Justice Bedi pointed out that when the lok adalat movement started in 1996, the general feeling was that it would not work. “However, the lok adalat movement has emerged as a big success despite all odds,” he maintained.

Justice Singhvi asserted that the mega lok adalat had proved a revolutionary step for winning the faith of people in the judicial system.

Justice Thakur disclosed that the “Samadhan-2008” was the biggest-ever lok adalat organised in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

“Ever since the decision to organise this mega lok adalat was taken about three months ago, the judicial and administrative officials concerned got engaged in a serious exercise of amicably settling as many cases as possible. The exercise began well in advance as it would not have been possible to decide such a large number of cases in just two days,” Justice Thakur revealed, adding that due to this, 2.5 lakh cases had been settled till date in this lok adalat.

Justice Mohunto read out the message sent by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishanan, in which he appreciated the effort of organising the mega lok adalat in Haryana and Punjab.

SONEPAT: As many as 12,715 cases of different nature were settled with mutual consent of the parties concerned on the first day of a two-day mega lok adalat organised in Sonepat, Gohana and Gannaur courts in the district on Saturday.

According to District and Sessions Judge Virender Singh, claims to the tune of Rs 1,41,35,022 were finalised while settling the cases pertaining to motor vehicle accidents.

Inaugurating the proceedings of the mega lok adalat, Justice A.K. Mittal, administrative judge of the Sonepat Sessions Division, stressed the need for adopting the lok adalat concept which “satisfies both parties without much loss of time and money”.

FATEHABAD: Funds allocated to the HSLSA for providing free legal aid to paupers have been lapsing year after year in Haryana as few people have been approaching the courts to avail of this facility due to lack of awareness.

Disclosing this here on Saturday, Justice S.D. Anand, a sitting judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, emphasised the need for creating awareness among the people regarding schemes meant for them.

Justice Anand was talking to mediapersons after inaugurating a mega lok adalat in this district.

District and Sessions Judge R.S. Virk said as many as 10,634 cases had been solved under the mega lok adalat in this district since October.

KURUKSHETRA: Since October 6 this year, 13,035 cases have been settled with mutual consent in lok adalats. A mega lok adalat was inaugurated by Justice S.S. Saron of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at the judicial complex here on Saturday. The adalat was presided over by District and Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, R.C. Bansal. In motor accident cases, claims amounting to Rs 19 lakh were settled.

A similar mega lok adalat, presided over by Justice Uma Nath Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court was organised at Karnal in which 2,348 cases were settled. These included 2,311 cases from Karnal and 37 cases from Assandh. REWARI: Justice A.K. Goyal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court inaugurated a two-day mega lok adalat at the district judicial complex here on Saturday.

As many as 7,000 cases of the nearly 10,000 cases which were put up before the courts, were settled through mutual consent.

KAITHAL: As many as 7,006 cases were settled on the first day of a two-day mega lok adalat in the district on Saturday.

The adalat was inaugurated in the district judicial complex here by Justice L.N. Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

SIRSA: Justice Mohinder Pal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Saturday inaugurated a mega lok adalat in the district courts here.

“As many as 2,300 cases have been settled by various judges in the mega lok adalat,” said District and Sessions Judge H.P. Singh.

“The total number of cases disposed of by various courts in the district since October, when the mega lok adalat was announced, has crossed the figure of 11,700,” he maintained.

JHAJJAR: Justice Nawab Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court inaugurated a mega lok adalat at the judicial complex here on Saturday.

BHIWANI: A two-day mega lok adalat began at the local juidicial complex under the charmanship of the chief of the District Legal Services Authority, R.K. Bishnoi, on Saturday. Several hundred cases were settled on the first day of the adalat.

Fatehabad, December 20
While the whole country is furious over the role of the Pakistan establishment in the aftermath of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which had their origin in that country, there are 56 Pakistani citizens who have been staying in a village of this district for more than three years without any valid documents.

Not only this, these Pakistani citizens have refused to go back to their country at any cost. These Pakistani Hindus, members of the extended family of Sona Ram, came to Jallopur village in April 2005 on one month's visa but did not return.

Now, these Pakistani Hindus have been eking out a living by manual labour in the village.

"We lived in the Mianwali area of Pakistan. While many of our relatives crossed over to India in 1947, we could not succeed in our attempts," said Om Parkash, a member of the family.

"We were being treated as second-class citizens in that country and no one married our daughters. Rather, daughters of poor Hindu families were abducted and even the police refused to help," he added. The families said they went to Rohtak first after entering India and later shifted to this village.

The families said they would not go back to Pakistan at any cost and would rather like to die here in case they were forced to leave India.

The deputy commissioner said he had asked the police to probe the matter. 

Gurgaon, December 20
A galaxy of financial experts, administrators and professionals from various fields today descended on the Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) complex here today to discuss the fallout of the global meltdown on the country's economy.

Eminent economist and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India C.Rangarajan, MP, was the chief guest as well as the keynote speaker at the HIPA-organised seminar, "The Global Economic Crisis : Its Impact on India".

Haryana chief secretary Dharam Vir presided over the seminar, while Ajay Shankar, secretary, Industrial Policy and Development, Government of India, and Yogesh Aggarwal, chairman, IDBI, were the other prominent speakers.

Delivering the welcome address, Dharam Vir noted that the government and other authorities concerned had adopted several measures to combat the impact of the economic recession on the country, but at the same time, there was a need to do some indepth thinking over the issue.

"Brainstorming by expert economists is the need of the day and this is the underlying idea behind organising today's seminar," he asserted.

Dr Rangarajan observed that the world economy was passing through a rough patch as a result of the global economic slowdown.

"The present economic crisis is no longer confined to the Western world. The heat is being felt by the developing countries, including India," he maintained.

The former RBI Governor threw light on the origin and possible ramifications of the meltdown, besides suggesting ways and means to deal with the situation in the Indian context.

"The emergence of the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the USA gradually snowballed into a global meltdown. The subsequent failure of the Lehman Brothers and other US investment bankers

triggered a chain reaction resulting in the crisis situation," he opined.

Dr Rangarajan attributed the crisis to regulatory failure, inappropriate leveraging and asset and liability mismatch in the case of investment bankers.

He stated the Indian banks did not need to worry much as unlike the US banks, they were not exposed much to distress or "toxic" assets. Moreover, the government was taking all-out measures to bail out the banks by providing increased liquidity.

Though he admitted that the export sector, including products as well as services, had been affected by the recession and capital flows had also declined, the MP hoped that the crisis would be over by the end of the next calendar year. He ruled out that the present recession was comparable to the depression of the 1930s.

Suggesting measures to tackle the problem, Dr Rangarajan asserted that the top priority should be to strengthen the financial system. "Liquidity to the banks and other financial institutions should be increased, and so should fiscal expenditure," he said, adding that the RBI's decisions to reduce CRR and Repo rates were steps in the right direction and taken in time.

The domestic credit system must also fill the gap created by the drying up of external sources, he added.

On the other hand, Shankar was of the view that easing the monitory policies alone would not suffice; and it was high time that the public sector stepped in with a public-private partnership model in areas such as housing and infrastructure development.

Aggarwal discussed at length the impact the crisis could have on our banking system. He hoped the steps taken today would go a long way in tackling the situation in the time to come. He advised the bankers not to compromise with the quality of assets under competitive pressure.

Former Haryana chief secretary M.C.Gupta summed up the deliberations and hoped that suggestions made by the speakers would go a long way in resolving the crisis. The HIPA director, Rajni Sekhri Sibal, proposed the vote of thanks.

Sonepat, December 20
A large number of mail bags containing thousands of letters and other articles have piled up at the city head post office as the indefinite strike by district postal employees entered its fourth day today .

According to official sources, at least 125 branch post offices have been locked since December 17 on the call of the All-India Dak Karamchari Sangh here and their non-functioning has led to inconvenience to people living in the villages of the district.

Carrying placards and raising anti-government slogans, hundreds of agitating employees assembled at the head post office here today, demanding the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations.

They also marched through the main bazars of the city and reached the residence of Congress MLA and Haryana's parliamentary secretary Anil Thakur and submitted a memorandum of their demands to him for forwarding to the central government.

Later, the postal employees assembled at Gita Bhavan Chowk and burnt an effigy of R. S. Natrajan Murti as recommendations of his commission were considered anti-employee.

Ranbir Singh, president of the All-India Postal Extra Department Employees Union, Sonepat division, has announced that the strike will continue until all demands of the employees are accepted by the central government.

The main demand of the employees is the grant of all benefits under the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations. — PTI