New Delhi, January 6
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has sought the allocation of Rs 100 crore from the Central government for raising the capabilities and compatibility of the state police and a one-time special grant of Rs 312 crore for strengthening the police infrastructure in the National Capital Region (NCR).

He was speaking at a Chief Ministers’ conference here today. He asked the Centre for an additional Rs 100 crore for 2009-10, in recognition of the state’s special strategic significance.

The state wants to match up to the challenges policing poses in the vulnerable NCR that is undergoing a phase of rapid economic growth and expansion.

He said the Centre must urgently consider making the installation of the GPS-based vehicle location system compulsory for all four-wheelers in order to keep tabs on their movement.

Assuring the Centre that the Haryana government was making all-out efforts to raise capabilities and compatibility of the police force, Hooda lamented that financial grants from the Central government for modernisation schemes were on the decline.

The Chief Minister also stressed the need for one-to-one meeting of the Chief Ministers with the Union Home Minister for formulating strategies for combating terrorism in the country.

Reiterating the firm resolve of the state government to give its people a safe and secure environment and to thwart any attempt to disrupt peace with a firm hand, Hooda said, “My government has already initiated a complete overhaul of the state police organisation to increase its preparedness to tackle the challenges to internal security.”

He said important vital installations such as the IOC refinery at Panipat, thermal and gas power plants, oil pipelines and depots had been identified and inspected jointly with representatives of Central intelligence agencies to evolve effective security arrangements.

Hooda said sensitive religious and iconic institutions like the Mansa Devi temple at Panchkula and the headquarters of the National Security Guards at Manesar had been identified for evolving security plans.

Important private establishments like hotels, banks, corporate offices and malls in Gurgaon and other big cities had been identified and special security arrangements like frisking by private security guards with the help of metal detectors, electronic surveillance, automated emergency alarm systems and hotlines with the police control room had been instituted, he said.

Gurgaon, January 6
City industrialists want the Central government to resolve the issues of transporters as soon as possible, fearing the truckers’ strike will start affecting their businesses.

The industrialists say the strike has not affected them much till now as they had adequate stocks, but they were worried if the strike continued for long.

Naveen Mangla, president, Chamber of Commerce, said, “We have already been hit by the global recession and the truckers’ strike may add to our miseries.”

“If the strike continues for a few more days, some industries may shut down,” he said. BP Bajaj, chairman of the Industries Association, says the strike may create problems if it gets prolonged.

“Multinational companies don’t keep inventory with them so the government should act without wasting time to help end the truckers’ strike.”

There are six unions under the Gurgaon Transport Welfare Association, which has 83 booking centres with 35 of these having more than 5,000 trucks.

Transporters in the country have gone on an indefinite strike, resulting in a hike in the prices of various commodities.

A local transporter said, “Yesterday, some small transporters were working, but today all of have stopped working and have joined the strike.”

Transporters are demanding a reduction in the price of diesel by at least Rs 10 and a uniform VAT of 4 per cent in all states.

“We are on an indefinite strike till the Central government fulfils our demands,” Kamal Kumar, general secretary of the Gurgaon Transport Welfare Association, said.

Gurgaon, January 6
Rakesh Yadav, who had been knocking at the doors of Civil Lines police station here for the past three weeks, has finally got an assurance of justice from local police.

The Tribune had published a news item in these columns today regarding the alleged refusal of the police to register an FIR on his complaint.

Yadav had been making the rounds of the Civil Lines police station to get an FIR registered in a case in which he had allegedly been robbed of his car by Vikrant Kalra in connivance with one of his acquaintances, Vicky.

Talking to The Tribune, Yadav said he received a call from Ashok Kumar, SHO, Civil Lines, who asked him to come to the police station and assured of prompt action in the matter. He deputed ASI Pradeep Dagar to solve the matter by tomorrow.

Dagar called accused Vikrant to give his viewpoint, who came there along with his father. Vikrant has been given a day’s time to make payment or give back the car.

If the accused fails to make the payment or return the car by tomorrow, he will have to deposit Rs 20,000 each as fine in the accounts of the Haryana police and the court.

Vikrant reportedly admitted before the police that he took away the car from the office of Rakesh Yadav.

Sirsa, January 6
Sikh organisations, led by Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa, president of the Haryana unit of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Sabha, have reacted strongly to the proposed congregation of Dera Sacha Sauda in Jalalana village in this district on January 12.

Talking to mediapersons today at Dasham Patshahi Gurudwara here, the Sikh organisations alleged that the January 12 congregation of the dera was aimed at “igniting Sikh-dera clashes” in the area again and demanded a ban on it.

Khalsa, accompanied by Ram Singh, a former sarpanch of Jalalana village, Preetam Singh, president of the gurdwara parbandhak committee of the village gurdwara, Parkash Singh Sahuwala and Sher Singh, president and manager, respectively, of Dasham Patshahi Gurdwara, Gurdev Singh, Gurdial Singh and others, went to the mini-secretariat and handed over a memorandum to Deputy Commissioner SK Goyal, demanding a ban on the entry of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in Jalalana or any other Sikh-dominated village in the district as it “can deteriorate the situation, which has been brought under control with great difficulty”.

“The congregation may lead to a Ghukkianwali-type dera-Sikh violence that occurred during the dera chief’s visit to that place in August 2007,” the memorandum warned.

Earlier, some Sikh organsations had submitted a memorandum to the Dabwali Tehsildar in this connection.

Dera Sacha Sauda has been organising a congregation in Jalanana, the birthplace of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s predecessor Shah Satnam Singh, every year on January 12, though it was not held last year due to tension.

Meanwhile, Aditya Insan, a spokesman for Dera Sacha Sauda, maintained that the dera had been organising congregations in 16 states, but there had never been any violence anywhere.

“The Ghukkianwali incident in August 2007 was a murderous attack on Guruji and not a clash between Sikhs and dera followers,” he alleged.

He said Dera Sacha Sauda could only pray to God that a few people who have been “virulently and rapidly spewing venom” against the dera in the name of religion saw reason and stopped such actions.

The authorities, meanwhile, maintained that they had received an application from Dera Sacha Sauda seeking permission to hold the January 12 congregation.

“I have received the application today and have sought a report from the SHO concerned. The authorities are yet to take a decision on the application,” said SP Subhsh Yadav.

Sonepat, January 6
The team of UGC experts committee would be visiting the Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya (BPSMV) tomorrow to evaluate the recruitment for the 11th Plan.

The ten-member delegation will be holding discussions with the top brass of the university. The committee visits universities, which are recognised under Section 12 (B) of the UGC Act 1956, in the beginning of every five year plan period to assess the past performance and to evaluate their future requirements for the purpose of the allocation of funds.

The committee would visit various departments of the university during their two-day stay here. The team would also evaluate various proposals regarding several new initiatives, departments and courses that the university has planned to come up with in the near future.

The team would also interact with the faculty members, and students. The team would also visit the Museum “Mera Gaon” to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the state.

The visiting experts in the team are prof Abhai Maurya, vice-chancellor, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, prof Tapti Basu, department of mass communication, Calcutta University, prof Dulal Goldar, former principal, DCE, prof GP Dubey, former dean, faculty of ayurveda, BHU, prof Ghanshyam, registrar, National Law University, New Delhi, Dr. Dharmendra Kumar, director, Pt Deen Dayal Upadhayaya Institute of Physically Handicapped, prof VK Bhalla, department of management, University of Delhi, prof RK Kale, School of Life Sciences, Jyoti Arora, higher education commissioner, Haryana, and Dr. Surinder Saini, deputy secretary, UGC.

Sonepat, January 6
Two armed miscreants looted cash and valuables worth around Rs 2 lakh at gunpoint from the house of a businessman on the Mission road here last night. The police has registered a case.

The robbers knocked at a door of the house of Satnarayan Jain, who works in Delhi and usually returns around 9 pm by a passenger train. Satnarayan’s son opened the door, thinking that somebody might have come to meet his father.

After entering the house, the robbers looted Rs 45,000, vikas patras of Rs 45,000 value and jewellery at gunpoint.

They locked up Satnarayan’s wife Rama Jain and their two children in a room before fleeing. Satnarayan returned from Delhi around 9 pm and on finding his house ransacked, he informed the police.

Rewari, January 6
The Haryana School Lecturers Association (HSLA) will launch a statewide agitation from January 9 in protest against the “injustice” done to the lecturers in the implementation of the recommendations of the sixth pay commission.

Giving details of their agitation, state president of the HSLA Anil Yadav said here today that in the first phase demonstrations by aggrieved school lecturers would be held on January 9 at all district headquarters.

Then memoranda seeking removal of the anomalies as well as acceptance of their pay scale-related demands would be presented to the deputy commissioners for onward despatch to the Chief Minister.

A state-level protest rally , which would be attended by thousands of agitating school lecturers, would be held in Rohtak on January 25 during the second phase of the agitation, Yadav added.

The third phase would comprise dharnas at Matka Chowk in Chandigarh from February 2 to 5.

Yadav also said that if their demands were not accepted in toto by the state government by then, the future course of action would be announced in Chandigarh on February 5.

Rohtak, January 6
The Haryana government had incurred an amount of about Rs 3,355 crore on the strengthening, widening and construction of roads and bridges in the state during the past three and a half years in order to improve and facilitate a better civic infrastructure in the state.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while interacting with the local residents here yesterday.

Hooda said a special thrust was being given to promote infrastructure in the state and as many as eight railway overbridges (ROBs) had been constructed in the state so far while work on 20 more were in progress and eight more in the pipeline.

The Chief Minister stated that while one ROB on the Hisar-Rohtak road was inaugurated recently, rest of the five ROB's in the city were likely to be completed within a year. He said budget of the PWD (B&R) Department had been increased from Rs 250 crore to Rs 1,600 crore during the last four years.

Expressing his gratitude towards the masses for faith and unstinted cooperation towards the ongoing development projects, Hooda claimed that the state was on its way to emerge as a frontrunner in progress, especially in the field of basic infrastructure and power generation capacity.

He said Haryana would have another thermal power station of about 1,320 MW at Jhajjar besides the 1,500 MW plant’s construction was going at desired pace.

The Chief Minister said it was perhaps for the first time that a balanced and all-round development was on in the state with the budget being raised several times on various sectors.

Chandigarh, January 6
The demand made in the presence of AICC treasurer Moti Lal Vora that certain sitting Haryana MPs must be replaced has led to claims for the party ticket by several aspirants.

The demand was raised by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh, party president Phool Chand Mullana and finance minister Birender Singh at a party meeting held here on December 30. Vora had not responded adversely, though he had not favoured it openly.

When asked pointedly, all he had to say was that he had heard the demand carefully. But the demand has suddenly aroused the aspirations of many Congressmen to make it to the Lok Sabha.

The Irrigation Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, said here today that he too was a candidate from the newly carved Lok Sabha constituency of Gurgaon. The earlier constituency of Mahendragarh has been bifurcated by the Delimitation Commission.

While part of it has been merged with Bhiwani, the other part has been included in Gurgaon. At present Mahendragarh is being represented by the Union Minister of State for Defence Production, Rao Inderjit Singh.

As a sitting MP, the Rao has the first claim to the party ticket. But he is yet to make it public from where he wants to contest---Gurgaon or Mahendragarh. His opponents say since the name of Mahendragarh has been included in the new constituency of Bhiwani-Mahendragarh, Inderjit should contest from there, leaving Gurgaon for a new face. Moreover, the Congress MP from Bhiwani, Kuldeep Bishnoi, has already quit the party.

Captain Yadav says he has been winning from the Rewari Assembly constituency, which is now part of the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency, since 1989. Therefore, he has a justified claim for contesting from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat.

Sources close to sitting Congress MLA from Palwal Karan Singh Dalal say that he too is keen on entering parliamentary politics. Dalal wants to contest the Faridabad Lok Sabha seat. At present it is represented by Avtar Singh Bhadana.

The sources say after the delimitation the population of the Jats in the Faridabad Lok Sabha constituency has gone up considerably. The BJP has been fielding a Jat, Ram Chander Bainda, from here in the past.

They say that if the party changes Bhadana in view of the new demographic character of Faridabad, Dalal would definitely stake his claim to the ticket.

Similarly, chairman of the labour department of the Haryana Congress Ram Sarup Janbaz has staked his claim to the Karnal seat. He recently met AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to urge him to nominate him as the party candidate in case sitting MP Arvind Sharma, who changed his loyalties from the Congress to the BSP and then back to his parent party during the trust vote in the Lok Sabha last year, was to be replaced.

Janbaz reportedly told Rahul that by giving him the ticket, the Congress would strengthen the belief of its common workers that they too could become legislators even if they were not moneybags.

Already Mullana has expressed his desire to contest the Ambala seat, held by Union Minister of State for Urban Development Selja. A former Haryana MLA, Raj Kumar Balmiki, also wants to contest this seat.

But Selja’s stature in the eyes of the party high command is so high that no state leader can plead for her replacement.

Chandigarh, January 6
The CBI has two more months to complete its probe into Sarita suicide case. Allegedly raped by the cops, she had committed suicide on June 9 last year at the Haryana police headquarters, following the alleged failure of the authorities to order investigation into her repeated complaints.

As the matter came up for hearing before Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta, CBI standing counsel Dr Anmol Rattan Sidhu also filed a status report of the probe carried out by a team headed by CBI SP Satish Dagar.

Dr Sidhu said investigation into the FIR pertaining to the rape had been completed and the charge sheet against accused constables Tilak Ram and Balraj Singh had been filed in the CBI special court at Ambala.

The report said DNA test of blood samples of the two accused and Sarita’s clothes, by Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), New Delhi, did not match.

During the investigation, the CBI further stated, it found that false records had been prepared in CIA-1, Rohtak, regarding arrest of Sarita’s husband Subhash. False entries were also made in the roznamcha.

The Bench, while granting two months time, adjourned the case for further hearing to March 16.

Chandigarh, January 6
The state is all set to implement the smart card based public distribution system (PDS), with the Government of India now releasing Rs 1.37 crore for the project.

The system will initially be introduced in the districts of Ambala, Sonepat and Sirsa by May this year.

The state government has already invited request for proposal (RFP) to digitise the entire data for 53 lakh ration card holders in the state.

Two more RFPs - for hardware and for system integration will be issued in the next month. Once the system gets integrated, the state government will be able to implement the system across the state.

Haryana and Chandigarh had agreed to introduce a smart card based delivery system for distribution of food grains, sugar and kerosene under the PDS.

All ration card holders, depot holders and the suppliers will be provided with smart cards to record entry of all transactions and bring about transparency in the delivery system.

The depot holders will be given Smart Transaction Terminals, where the supplier and the customer will swipe their cards and record finger prints each time a transaction is affected.

All these transactions would be recorded in a data server, and this will held in plugging all leakages and diversion of food items from the PDS.

It is estimated that 50 per cent of kerosene and 20- 25 per cent of wheat and sugar meant for public distribution is being diverted by unscrupulous elements.

This means that the food subsidy Bill of the government continues to soar, while the poor do not get the real benefits.

It is thus that the Union government decided to introduce the system on a pilot basis in Haryana and Chandigarh.

“By May, we will issue these smart cards to over 7 lakh ration card holders in Ambala, Sonepat and Sirsa. By the end of the year, we will have issued these to all 53 ration card holders and 9,600 depot holders,” says Anil Malik, director, food and civil supplies, Haryana.

Chandigarh, January 6
The Haryana Government has decided to establish a regional campus of English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad (EFLU), at Meham in Rohtak district under its drive to provide quality education to the youth.

A spokesman of the Higher Education Department today said that 50 acres was being purchased by the department for this purpose.

He said the state government had also implemented a soft skills scheme in the state with a view to upgrading the knowledge of students and giving them an intensive training in communication skills and interpersonal skills particularly for the BPO industry and the information technology enabled services sector.

He said keeping in view the importance of the English language in the era of globalisation, the government had decided to establish English labs in 25 goverment colleges which were to be developed as centres of excellence from the academic session 2008-09.

Communicative English as an add-on course would be introduced. The proposal was named the certificate course in communication skill.

A certificate would be awarded for the first level, a diploma for the second year and an advanced diploma for third-year pass out students. — UNI

Chandigarh, January 6
In view of the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment regarding the release of the notified land, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his government.

Calling the selective release of land “a massive and persistent land scam”, the INLD further demanded that a sitting judge of the High Court be appointed to inquire all such land deals that have taken place during the past four years and filing of criminal charges against Hooda and his associates.

It further demanded that all such released land be immediately returned to the original owners of the land.

Former Finance Minister of the state and national spokesman of the INLD, Sampat Singh, accused the government of working in connivance with a lobby of the colonisers, land sharks and group of land mafia.

The Hooda government has been using the tool of notification of the Sections 4, 6 and the award to compel farmers to sell their ancestral land at throwaway prices.

Chandigarh, January 6
Leaders of the Haryana Congress, led by All-India Congress Committee secretary RC Khotia, today met the Chief Electoral Officer to apprise him of the problems pertaining to availability of draft voter lists in some districts.

Addressing a press conference at the Congress office here, Khotia, also an MP from Orissa, said there had been a delay in the appointment of block-level officers (BLOs) in the state despite instructions for the same from the Election Commission.

“Major political parties were asked to appoint block-level agents to sanitise the voter lists. However, without the BLOs, our agents do not know whom to approach to register their objections,” he said.

Accompanied by working president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee Kuldeep Sharma and Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh, he said he had been sent to Haryana to take stock of the situation by visiting the district headquarters of the party.

Sharma said the draft voter lists would now by ready by January 22. Extra time had been given to parties to register their objections with the BLOs. “Earlier, the Election Commission had fixed the deadline for January 10, which was extended only a couple of days ago,” he added.

Stating that the Congress was keen on an early decision with regard to candidates for the parliamentary elections, he stated that a panel comprising three names from each constituency had been sent to the party high command.

Khotia said a campaign committee and a manifesto committee would be constituted shortly. “Our criteria in giving tickets would be ‘winnability’ and loyalty to the party and money has no role to play in it. Anybody can stake his claim to a ticket. However, it is for the party to decide the right candidate,” he emphasised.

Sharma refused to divulge names forwarded by the Pradesh Congress Committee. Birender Singh remained tight-lipped about his interest in contesting the parliamentary elections.

Panchkula, January 7
The Haryana Government is launching two hi-tech mobile media centres to enable mediapersons covering important events in remote areas to file reports. The mobile centres will also enable the issuance of press releases instantaneously.

Based on Volvo bus chassis, the centres will be equipped with computers, satellite-linked communication equipment and power supply besides other facilities.

Claiming to be the first such centres in the country, sources said that three quotations had been received from prospective firms on the closing date of the tenders today.

The passenger area of the bus would be divided into two parts.The forward compartment would have six working tables for computers, while rear compartment would be a small briefing area for a VIP with eight seats for an audience.

An imported chemical toilet, a home theatre system, imported curtains, vinyl flooring, generator sets and UPS, LCD screens, a public address system, a DTH dish, DVD players and a pantry are among the other features of the vehicle.

The cost of a chassis is about Rs 13 lakh and the cost of fabrication of the body is estimated to be Rs 40 lakh.

Six computers and printers are projected to cost Rs 7 lakh. The tentative cost of two LCD screens, DVD and P system is Rs 5 lakh and the cost of a DTH dish is another Rs 3 lakh.

The Congress government which has hurt the sentiments of the poor people would pay the price in the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, she claimed.

Karnal, January 6
The Haryana government has launched schemes worth Rs 554 crore for the improvement of milch cattle, including “Murrah buffaloes”, and opened 198 veterinary institutions during the past four years.

An official spokesman said here that the government planned to open 60 more veterinary institutions during the current financial year to give a boost to animal husbandry activities and increase production and yield.

Haryana was second in the country as far as milk availability was concerned and the per capita milk available was 660 gm.

The government had provided training in veterinary activities to more than 26,000 persons to enable them to become self-reliant and also prepared an action plan to achieve the target to double the milk production in the next three years.