Chandigarh, February 12
Playing its trump card aimed at cultivating the farming fraternity, the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today announced a complete debt waiver for farmers while promising reduced interest rates on agri loans.

The national president of the BJP, Rajnath Singh, addressing the “janakrosh rally”, said if his party came to power at the Centre, farmers would have to pay less than 4 per cent on loans and get relief in surety for purchase of tractors from loans.

“We will not keep your tractor and landholding as surety. Instead, only the tractor or the land size worth the cost of the tractor will be kept as guarantee. Any subsidy on fertiliser or seeds, will directly go into the accounts of farmers rather than being passed on to the industrialists,” he said, in an interactive speech during which he sought responses from the public repeatedly.

Launching a scathing attack on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance at the Centre, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he said a few terrorists had turned the country upside-down.

“It is a cowardly government being headed by an even cowardly leadership. Pakistan should have been taken to task but the Congress has a weak heart. We have the courage to send out a strong message saying Pakistan-aided terrorism will not be tolerated. The fact that we have won four wars against Pakistan should not be forgotten,” he emphasised.

After releasing a book of questions by Ajay Chautala, the architect of the padyatra, on questions posed to the Congress, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said unemployment, illiteracy, poverty were a legacy of the Congress.

“Chaudhary Devi Lal waged a battle against the British. We have an equally big challenge before us and you have the right to vote out the party not serving your interest. The Shiromani Akali Dal, the BJP and the INLD are one force in the region and we will not allow the Congress policy of divide and rule to succeed,” he said.

The Janta Dal (United) president, Sharad Yadav, said the Congress leadership and the party never had anything to do with the common man and his dreams.

Indian National Lok Dal supremo Om Prakash Chuatala said the INLD padyatra, which concluded today by way of the rally, had given the Congress some uncomfortable moments in Haryana.

“Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was a property dealer and he has looted the farmers of their land in the name of special economic zones,” he maintained.

While speakers from the INLD and the BJP complimented Ajay Chautala for his successful 30-day padyatra, which stirred the public to raise its voice against the “injustice from the Congress rule”, they also repeatedly rubbed in the fact that LK Advani must be made the next Prime Minister, as if to muster support for his candidature.

Flags of both the parties dotted the venue though the BJP flags were almost missing in the crowd dominated by green turbans, the colour of the INLD.

Chandigarh, February 12
After UP and AP, today was the turn of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

Members of the main opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), created a ruckus in the House today and Speaker Raghuvir Singh Kadian had to call the marshal to take the protesting members out of the House.

The INLD members were not present in the House during question hour. However, after the House resumed the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his Address, the INLD members trooped into the House. Without permission of the presiding officer, deputy leader of the INLD legislature party Sushil Indora started speaking. He said when lakhs of people from the state had been expressing their anger against the government at the INLD’s “janakrosh rally” here, the House was showering false praise on the government.

At one point of time, the INLD members were involved in a verbal duel with BSP member Arjun Singh.

When the ruckus continued, Parliamentary Affairs Minister brought a motion for the suspension of INLD member Sita Ram and Indora for the remaining period of the day. Both were taken out of the House by the marshal. Now, it was the turn of the other INLD members. A similar motion saw the ouster of Shahida Khan, Rampal Chidana, Gian Chand and Balwant Singh Sadhaura. Ishwar Palaka walked out of the House when his colleagues were being escorted out by the marshal.

The lone woman member of the INLD, Rekha Rana, continued to hold the fort. When Kadian first allowed her to speak for 15 minutes and then 30 minutes on the Governor’s Address, she was at a loss. She did not know what to speak. However, she managed to save the situation for herself by telling Kadian that if the suspension of her colleagues was not revoked, she would walk out of the House. Even before Kadian could respond, Rana had left the House.

Earlier, speaking on the motion of thanks, Shamsher Singh Surjewala said a statue of veteran freedom fighter Ranbir Singh Hooda should be installed on Parliament premises. He also wanted more concessions for farmers.

Others who participated in the debate included Tajinder Pal Singh Mann, Bachan Singh, Narpinder Singh, Naresh Malik and Radhey Shyam Sharma.

Chandigarh, February 12
The Punjab and Haryana High Court wants to know as to why the district administration cannot perform its duties without the court intervention. The high court has also let out a stern warning to officials found “incapable of performing their legal duties”.

Miffed over the “sorry state of affairs”, Justice Ranjit Singh has also asked Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner, Jhajjar Superintendent of Police and Bahadurgarh Subdivisional Officer to file personal affidavits before the court “explaining reasons as to why they have failed to perform the duties required to be performed by them”.

Justice Ranjit Singh did not mince his words while saying “further direction would follow, if it is found they are not capable of performing their legal duties”.

The austere observations were made on a petition filed by Ram Chander of Jasaur Kheri in Jhajjar district. He had alleged the village shamlat land, including a public path, was in illegal and unauthorised possession of several persons.

The petitioner had added that Bahadurgarh Subdivisional Officer had issued a letter to the tehsildar for removing unauthorised possession over the shamlat land with the police help on September 1, 2003.

An application, against the gram panchayat filed by an unauthorised occupant, was dismissed.

The appeal against the order too was not entertained. Subsequently, on March 23, 2007, the gram panchayat passed a resolution for clearing a path from unauthorised occupation.

Following this, the BDPO issued a letter. Another letter was issued by him on the petitioner’s complaint for removal of the unauthorised possession.

The SDO too issued a letter to the Deputy Commissioner. He, in turn, issued directions for appointing a duty magistrate for the removal of encroachments on February 20, last year. Requisite police help was also ordered. Still, the encroachments were not removed.

Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “Why should there be need for a writ court to interfere for directing the officials to perform their duties…. There should not be a need to command them to do their respective duties.

“It is sad to notice that intervention from the high court is needed for the Deputy Commissioner or the police to perform their duties and functions.

“It is indeed a sad commentary on the state of affairs. This cannot be left at that and needs to be remedied permanently. Let notice be issued to the DC, SDO, BDPO and SP….” 

Chandigarh, February 12
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the Haryana Additional Director-General of Police (crime branch) to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) for looking into the multi-crore duping of “hundreds” of farmers by developers and builders in Yamunanagar.

The developers were allegedly paying part of the sale consideration through cheques, which upon presentation were being dishonoured due to insufficient funds.

The SIT has been asked by Justice Surya Kant to conclude the investigation in a fair, impartial and dispassionate manner, as early as possible, but not later than three months. The Collector, Yamunanagar, too has been asked to take necessary and prompt action so that every victim-farmer was not compelled to rush to the court.

The directions were issued on a petition filed by Yamunanagar resident Tejinder Kumar and another for directions to the SP to initiate action against three real estate developers and builders.

The petitioners had alleged the builders had duped several farmers in the district by alluring them to execute sale deeds with a promise to pay the sale consideration through cheques, which later on bounced for want of sufficient funds. Taking up the matter, Justice Surya Kant asserted a substantial part of sale consideration remained unpaid in the matter. Only after the police intervened, the entire sale consideration was paid.

Justice Surya Kant also took note of a submission made by the state counsel on the instructions of a police official that the ADGP, crime branch, had already decided to hand over the investigation of such cases to the crime branch.

Karnal, February 12
In a major technological breakthrough, scientists of the biotechnology centre of the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) have succeeded in producing the world’s first cloned buffalo calf. The cloned calf was of Murrah breed.

However, the clone born on February 6, survived only for six days. The scientists attributed the premature death of the cloned calf to lung infection with symptoms of pneumonia. The calf was on medication, but stopped responding to the antibiotics yesterday.

Dr AK Srivastav, director, NDRI, told The Tribune that technology had been successfully developed and two new calves would be born in May and June. It was failure of medication and not the technique, he added.

The landmark achievement, which was made possible through new handguided cloning technique, developed by the scientists would have far-reaching repercussions for the animal husbandry sector.

The new technique is simpler and advanced modification of the cloning technique used for producing the cloned sheep, “Dolly”, in 1995 and is less demanding in terms of equipment, time and skill.

The conventional technique on the other hand required sophisticated and expensive equipment like micromanipulators. In this technique, oocytes isolated from abattoir ovaries were matured in vitro, denuded and treated with an enzyme to digest the zona and then enucleated with the help of handheld fine blade.

Further, the somatic from ear of a donor buffalo was propagated to be as donor-nuclei were electro fused, cultured and grown in the laboratory and the resulted embryos were transferred to recipient buffalos for production of cloned calf of desired genders.

Dr Mangala Rai, director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), congratulated the team consisting of Dr SK Singla, Dr RS Manik, Dr MS Chauhan, Dr P Palta, Dr RA Shaw and A George for the remarkable achievement which would usher in a new era in animal science, and transfer multiplication of superior germ plasm.

He said the new technique would go a long way in bringing another white revolution to meet the increasing demand of milk for growing population.

Chandigarh, February 12
The two economic stimulus packages by the Government of India have failed to bring any reprieve to the micro and small enterprises (MSEs). These MSEs continue to face a liquidity crunch in wake of high processing charges by banks, non-issuance of VAT refunds and inability of banks to provide them collateral free loans.

These issues were brought to the fore during a special meeting of the State-Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) convened for MSEs in Haryana.

Industry representatives from across the state rued that the real benefits of the two stimulus packages have not reached them, resulting in a severe shrinkage of their profit margins.

RN Chandna, vice president, Haryana Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said one of the biggest problems being faced by them was the high charges being imposed by banks on various banking transactions.

“The inter-bank service charges, processing charges on loans and draft charges are high. Micro and small enterprises need frequent funding and these charges eat into a large portion of the already small profit margins,” he said.

The regional director of RBI, New Delhi, R Gandhi, however, said the apex regulatory bank had now asked all banks to put a cap on charges for transfer of money and asked all banks not to charge processing charges.

“We are also encouraging the use of electronic transactions through RTGS and NEFT so that we can move to non-cash-based transactions,” he said.

Ramesh Verma, president of the Panipat Handlooms Export Association, rued that though the RBI had asked banks to give loans up to Rs 25 lakh without a collateral, no bank was following this. “A majority of the MSEs are in the unorganised sector and cannot afford to give collaterals,” he added.

Puneet Gupta, president of the Ambala Scientific Instruments Manufacturing Association, said the non-refund of VAT by the Sales Tax Department, was also eating into their profit margins. “We are already facing a credit squeeze and the non-refund of VAT is further aggravating the situation,” he said.

Gurgaon, February 12
The recent incident of Institute of Technology and Management (ITM) students protesting over the suspension of some engineering students of the college has snowballed into a major row.

The students, alleging mental torture and extortion by the college management, have been staging protest demonstrations for the past four days.

On the other hand, the ITM authorities have closed the college “indefinitely” in view of the volatile situation. They have also written to the state as well as local authorities to intervene in view of the threat perception by the protesters.

Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar said some students of ITM had approached her and she had told them to submit their charter of demands for appropriate action.

“On getting their demands, we will ask the Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) authorities to get the matter probed or institute an inquiry ourselves,” she said, adding that for the time being, police personnel had been deployed at the college.

Students protesting in front of the college building told The Tribune that the college management had subjected them to grave harassment and levied exorbitant fines at the slightest pretext.

“You have to pay Rs 20,000 even if you are one lecture short…students have to pay parking charges every time they park their vehicles on college premises…there is a barber shop on the college premises, where the students having long hair are forcibly sent to get a haircut for Rs 100,” the students maintained.

Students alleged that they were made to pay heavy fines on things like holding hands, walking on lawns, running or talking loudly in the college corridors and other such things.

However, the college authorities said the students and certain outsiders had resorted to hooliganism and vandalised the college campus in the name of protest. “We have wrote to the authorities concerned that it will be not be possible for us to teach in the given circumstances,” they maintained.

Meanwhile, according to unconfirmed reports, several faculty members of the college have tendered their resignations. The college authorities refused to confirm or deny it.

Panipat, February 12
A gang of eight robbers struck at the house of a doctor in the Bharat Nagar locality here late last night and decamped with Rs 2 lakh and about 350 gm of gold jewellery.

The incident took place in the house of Dr Poonam, who lived their along with her son Niraj. Dr Poonam’s husband had died a few months ago. According to relatives of the family, the robbers entered the house after scaling the boundary wall. They managed to enter the rooms of Dr Poonam and her son Niraj. Brandishing knives, they tied the hands and feet of the mother-son duo and gagged their mouths. They then got hold of the keys of almirahs and ransacked the house. The robbers also took away a mobile phone and a laptop.

Soon after the robbers left the house, Niraj managed to free himself and raised the alarm. Soon, neighbours reached their house. They then went to the nearby police station and reported the matter to the police, which registered a case.

A team of senior police officials along with SP MS Sheoran reached the spot and initiated investigations.

According to sources, criminals have been quite active in the Bharat Nagar locality over the past couple of days.

Sonepat, February 12
The Gohana court of Subdivisional Judicial Magistrate JS Sidhu has stayed the process of carving out of 100 sq yards of plots from the common land in Chhapra village. The land was to be distributed free of cost by the state government.

The stay was granted on the plea of villagers - Prem Chand, Deegh Ram, Dalip Singh, Darshan and Chand Ram. These farmers had pleaded that the land which was being used for carving out the plots was not a shamlat land. The farmers were the owners of this land.

The plea was against the Haryana government, assistant collector (second class), Gohana, and the Chhapra village panchayat. The court had issued notices to the parties concerned.