Rohtak, February 2
The mortal remains of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda (94), a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and father of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, were consigned to the flames this evening with full state honours.

He had died here yesterday after a prolonged illness.

The pyre was lit by Inder Singh Hooda, the eldest son of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh. A salute was given by a team of Haryana Police. The Chief Minister’s younger brother, Dharmender Hooda, and son Deepender Singh Hooda, MP from Rohtak, besides a large number of dignitaries and local residents attended the funeral.

The Haryana government has decided to construct a national memorial to Chaudhary Ranbir Singh.

Those who paid tributes to the departed soul at the Model Town residence of the Chief Minister included Haryana Governor AR Kidwai, AICC general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi, in charge of the Haryana Congress affairs Moti Lal Vora, Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot, HPCC president Phool Chand Mullana, working president Kuldeep Sharma, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Selja and Union Minister of State for Defence Production Rao Inderjeet Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma, Union Minister of State from Home JS Jaiswal, the Army chief, Gen Deepak Kapoor, Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh, Agriculture Minister HS Chatha, Education Minister Mange Ram Gupta, Health Minister Kartar Devi, Power Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, Minister of State for Revenue Savitri Jindal and former Governor Sultan Singh.

Thousands of people converged on the residence of the Chief Minister to pay their homage. All educational institutions, shops and commercial establishments in the town remained closed as a mark of respect to the departed Gandhian and veteran parliamentarian. Some hospitals and private clinics also remained close.

The body of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh, who breathed his last around 5 pm yesterday, was kept for “public darshan” at the residence of the Chief Minister here since early this morning. The body was taken in a flower-bedecked hearse to the cremation site at about 2 pm. The cremation took place near at the IMT near Kheri Sadh village here.

Kurukshetra, February 2
The District Bar Association mourned the death of a renowned freedom fighter and the lone surviving member of the Constituent Assembly, Chaudhary Ranbir Singh Hooda, father of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, in a condolence meeting held here today.

A two-minute silence was observed to pay homage to the departed soul. The work remained suspended in all courts here for today.

According to another unanimous resolution passed by the association in its emergent meeting held here today on the issue of amendments in the CrPC and against the entry of foreign lawyers, the association resolved that the work would remain suspended in all courts tomorrow.

SONEPAT: Congress leaders of the district mourned the death of Chaudhary Ranbir Singh here on Sunday.

Chief Parliamentary Secretary Ramesh Kaushik, parliamentary secretary Anil Thakkar, MLAs Jitender Singh Malik and Jagbir Singh Malik, state vice-president of the Haryana Women Commission Chander Prabha, AICC member Sumitra Chauhana and DCC (urban) president Pradeep Gautam in their condolence messages said Ranbir Singh was the last surviving symbol of the historic event of the formation of the Constitution Assembly of free India which declared India as a socialist, democratic and secular republic.

Members of the Sonepat Bar Association also paid their homage to the departed soul by observing a two-minute silence and suspending the court work for Monday.

ROHTAK: Several political, non-political, educational and professional organisations have mourned the death of Ranbir Hooda. A two-minute silence was observed at many places, including Maharshi Dayanand University, the PGIMS, the district office of the Congress committee, office of the city branch of the Indian Medical Association and staff and faculty of the Dental College, Rohtak.

The Haryana State Medical Teachers Association, the Teaching and Non-Teaching Association of the MDU, the Haryana Attorney Welfare Association and the Ex-servicemen Association have expressed grief over the demise of Ranbir Singh. Secretary of the state unit of the CPM Inderjit Singh and the local units of the INLD and the BJP have mourned the death of Ranbir Hooda.

GURGAON: GT Dental College, Hospital and Research Institute, Budhera, mourned the death of Ranbir Hooda by observing a two-minute silence here on Monday.

A senior faculty member of the college, Dr Sharn Sandhu, said, “Ranbir Hooda was a symbol of simple living and honesty, and followed Gandhian values all his life.”

Fatehabad, February 2
Residents of Bighar village here, particularly those belonging to the Bishnoi community, are up in arms against the alleged killing of a deer in the village.

Some villagers have allegedly cooked the protected animal’s meat after hunting it and that has angered the Bishnoi community members, which is known for protecting animals.

The police and wildlife officials have taken samples of the meat.

“I received a tip off that a villager had hunted a deer and had cooked its meat. When I along with other villagers went there, we found that the dish was being cooked. The owner of the house first said it was goat’s meat, but later he admitted that it was deer,” said Bhup Singh Godara, husband of village sarpanch and a member of the Bishnoi temple, Fatehabad.

When the police and wildlife officials reached the village, all male members of the accused family escaped, he added.

The police party led by DSP Suresh Kaushik searched the house.

The police and wildlife officials have taken samples of the meat and said they would send it for examination.

Forest and wildlife protection officials said it was still to be ascertained that which type of deer had been killed, if at all it was a deer.

“Black buck, which is also the state animal of Haryana, is found in this part of Haryana in abundance. Black buck is a schedule I protected animal and punishable under the law,” said divisional forest officer, Fatehabad, SK Goyal.

Sonepat, February 2
Haryana Finance Minister Birender Singh has also included his name in the long list of aspirants wanting to contest the next parliamentary elections from the Sonepat constituency.

Reacting to reports appearing in a section of the Press about his possibility of contesting the parliamentary elections from the Sonepat constituency, he said though he was “alright in his present position”, he would abide by the directions of Congress president Sonia Gandhi in this matter.

He was addressing a public meeting organised by Congress leader Pradeep Chahal in his native village, Mahmudpur, to celebrate the 128th birth anniversary of Deenbandhu Sir Chhotu Ram.

Claiming that the state had witnessed speedy development in every field, he said poverty in the state would be eliminated within six years. He also hinted that the state government could again waive loans of farmers if they became “incapable” to repay the loans.

He said Sonia Gandhi was expected to lay the foundation stone of a medical college for girls at BPS Women University, Khapur Kalan (Sonepat), soon. She would also inaugurate Rajiv Gandhi College at Uchana in Jind district the same day.

Panipat, February 2
Even as the union government managed to compel the striking IOC employees to withdraw their strike that had almost crippled the nation a few days ago, continued delay in fulfilling their demands has left the employees dejected.

Senior leaders of the IOC Officials Association said instead of showing empathy towards the problems being faced by the employees of the petrochemical public sector undertakings, false propaganda was launched to malign the image of the IOC employees.

They said in some sections of the media it was portrayed that officials of the Panipat refinery were drawing fat salaries that ran into lakhs per head. The government had also stated that their demand for hike in perks was not genuine at all. However, according to the salary slips, grade A officials of the refinery were drawing a net salary of Rs 24,720 while the officials of grade H were getting Rs 27,370 per month.

The leaders said it was the government that had forced them to go on strike as their long pending demands had not been met.

They said even as the Rao Committee that had been constituted to recommend pay hikes for them had long submitted its report, but the government had not implemented any of the recommendations till date.

The leaders sought that the government should provide relief to the employees of the public sector undertakings at the earliest by fulfilling their genuine demands.

Karnal, February 2
The cultivation of non-basmati rice in states of northern Indian may soon become a thing of past.

Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI), a premier institution for research in rice, has shifted the focus from non-basmati to basmati rice cultivation to enable farmers to fetch higher returns.

The shift would help farmers in replacing non-basmati crops with early maturing and high-yielding basmati rice crops with low water consumption, said the director, IARI, Dr SN Sinha.

The IARI, a pioneer in research and extension activities in rice cultivation, which had been patronising cultivation of fine-quality Pusa-44 (non basmati) rice along with various varieties of basmati rice, is now promoting basmati rice and has advised the farmers to go in for transplantation of basmati paddy during the last week of June and the first week of July and use green manure for better yield.

He said Pusa-44 rice was a long-duration crop maturing in 145 to 150 days as compared to various varieties of basmati rice like Pusa PR-10, Pusa 1121, Pusa 1460, Pusa sugandha-5, Pusa basmati-1 and improved basmati-1 which matured within 115 to 130 days.

Both basmati and non-basmati rice are grown in Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal and parts of Rajasthan, Western Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh but Karnal is known as the export hub and basket of basmati rice.

India is the biggest producer and exporter of basmati rice with Haryana accounting for 50 per cent of the total area under basmati, followed by Uttar Pradesh (25 per cent) and Punjab (18 per cent).

Further, the per hectare productivity of basmati rice was 1,400 kg to 2,100 kg while the productivity of non-basmati rice was 450 kg to 500 kg per hectare. The production of basmati rice, which had almost doubled during the past five years, was likely to go up with declaration of Pusa 1121 as basmati rice and the change in cropping pattern from non-basmati to basmati would increase production many times.

India exported basmati rice to several countries but its prices had drastically come down from $2,000 to $1,300 per tonne in the UAE, a major importer. Even the prices of non-basmati plummeted from $900 to $580 per tonne, according to a report published in Emirates Business early this week.

The prices had mainly plunged due to depreciation in Pakistan and Indian currency by 45 per cent and 15 per cent, respectively, and economic crisis forcing people to switch over from super-quality basmati to cheaper varieties.

Chandigarh, February 2
Overflowing warehouses (thanks to a bumper harvest) and the shortage of skilled manpower for commodity handling in Haryana has led the Haryana Warehousing Corporation (HWC) to outsource its commodity and warehouse management services.

The corporation is reportedly engaged in talks with private companies to have strategic collaboration for the handling of warehousing operations. Recently, it signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with a leading collateral and commodity management services provider, the National Bulk Handling Corporation (NBHC), for commodity and warehousing management services.

“This is the first attempt by the HWC to outsource some of its services. Since we are short of staff, we are looking at public-private partnership for the handling of warehousing operations. Such agreements between the corporation and private parties will create an enviable value proposition for the entire commodity ecosystem,” said Ashok Khemka, Managing Director, HWC.

The HWC has 106 storage points across the state with a storage capacity of 15 lakh metric tonnes. Though the average capacity utilisation of these warehouses has remained between 60 and 70 per cent, the bumper harvest during the rabi and kharif seasons last year led to 100 per cent space utilisation in the HWC.

But the shortage of trained staff meant lower efficiency and poor cost optimisation in the entire gamut of commodity management. Realising that the strengthening of the post-harvest infrastructure is the most effective way to tackle future problems of food, the corporation is now seeking partners in the PPP mode, which is expected to herald a new paradigm in bringing about efficiency in commodity management.

Recently, the corporation also introduced a scheme of granting maintenance incentive to its own staff. It has been decided that for the maintenance and upkeep of stocks in quantitative terms, godown keepers, attendants and watchmen be “incentivised” by 5 paise per metric tonne per month for the HWC’s food stocks and 0. 3 per cent of the actual revenue earned by the corporation for the storage of private stocks.

Even technical and junior technical assistants will be granted similar incentives for ensuring that the stocks are maintained in the proper state during the storage period. 

New Delhi, February 2
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has recommended that the Haryana Government pay Rs 1 lakh by way of interim relief to the victim, who was sexually abused by the headmaster of a government middle school in Anandpur in Rewari district of the state two years ago.

The complainant had alleged that his granddaughter, a student of class VIII, was sexually abused by headmaster Samay Singh on February 11, 2007. He alleged that the headmaster also made a bid to rape her.

It was alleged that the police had registered a case on February 14, 2007, under Sections 294 and 506 of the IPC. The complainant had also alleged that the case was not registered under the appropriate section of law and therefore, no action against the culprits was taken by the police.

The commission considered the above complaint on February 23 and directed the NHRC director-general (investigations) to send a team from the investigation division of the NHRC for an on-the-spot inquiry and submit a report within two weeks.

The Rewari SP was directed by the commission to closely monitor the investigation of the case by an officer not below the rank of Dy SP and also directed the director of school education to report whether any departmental action had been initiated against the headmaster and if so, the outcome thereof be intimated.

The SP said chargesheet against Samay Singh had been submitted in the court on March 19, 2007.

The commission opined that it was a fit case for award of interim relief to the victim. — UNI

Yamunanagar, February 2
Most-wanted thief Amar Singh (30), who has been allegedly involved in 150 cases of theft, cheating and forgery in different districts of the state, was arrested along with four members of his gang by the CIA staff near Fountain Chowk here today.

The kingpin of the gang, Amar Singh, hailing from Panchkula, along with his gang was caught in connection with eight theft cases that took place in Sadhaura town here on the same night last week and theft of jewellery on January 26.

The gang also confessed stealing two motorcycles. The other four members of the gang, who were arrested, included Kamni of Panchkula, Angad of Naraingarg, Prithi Singh of Naraingarh and Jaswinder Singh of Panchkula. CIA in charge Narender Singh said Amar Singh was a habitual criminal and had been involved in the cases of theft for the past 15 years.