Chandigarh, February 19
The economic meltdown has a silver lining; at least in the case of the Haryana Power General Corporation (HPGC).

The corporation has revised its tariff proposal for the next financial year from Rs 3.79 per kwh to Rs 3.11 per kwh.

It has cut its tariff drastically primarily because the global coal and oil prices have come down following the economic slowdown.

In its application filed before the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) on October 30 last, the HPGC had demanded a tariff of Rs 3.79 per kwh against the average tariff of Rs 2.90 per kwh for its generation in the current financial year.

The main reason for the hefty increase in tariff for 2009-10 was that because of the shortage of domestic coal, the Union government had ordered the import of six lakh MT of coal, which comes to about 10 per cent of the total coal requirement by the Haryana power generating units.

Around October last, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had contacted with the State Trading Corporation (STC) for import of 5.25 million MT of coal at a rate of $182 MT.

In its wisdom, which has now proved right, the HPGC linked the price of coal with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) notified index to reap the benefit of global recessionary trend. MD of the corporation Sanjeev Kaushal says it was also decided to link coal prices with the price index based on the CERC methodology so that consumers stand to benefit with future decline in coal prices. At present, the coal prices are about $100 MT.

The price of oil, which ranged from Rs 41,600 per KL to Rs 43,200 per KL for various kinds of oil used by the HPGC units, has come down to Rs 30,150 per KL to Rs 37,200 per KL.

Kaushal said the corporation had decided to pass this benefit in the reduction of fuel prices to the consumers in its revised tariff application.

Chandigarh, February 19
Haryana’s name has been cleared for the extension of AIIMS, New Delhi, in Badsa village in Jhajjar district, and upgrade of the PGI in Rohtak.

Recently, a team of the Union Health Ministry and AIIMS had visited Badsa village to inspect the site for setting up AIIMS extension.

Wasting little time, the Haryana government immediately offered to provide 300 acres to the Central government for setting up the Rs 2000-crore AIIMS in Badsa village. The AIIMS extension also includes National Institute of Mental Health and the first-ever National Institute of Genetic Care. AIIMS extension in Haryana will be bigger than AIIMS-like institutes proposed to be set up elsewhere.

Initially, the Haryana government had been asked for and had agreed to offer 200 acres for AIIMS in Jhajjar. However, when the Union Health Minister wanted 100 acres more for setting up more such central health institutes, Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda took up the matter with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who agreed to provide 300 acres.

Hooda’s constant touch with the Union Health Ministry had borne fruits and these projects and many more such national level institutes, proposed to be set up in the state, will involve a whooping investment of Rs 2,000 crore.

Though not on agenda, the upgrade of the PGI at Rohtak was approved by the union Cabinet. Interestingly, five government medical colleges in the country were to be approved for providing AIIMS-like facilities and Rohtak PGI did not figure in the list. It was taken up at the instance of Deepender Hooda.

In a statement, Hooda expressed his gratitude to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, and Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, for giving unstinted support to his efforts. He also thanked the Haryana Chief Minister for providing land for this purpose.

Panipat, February 19
With the feeling of loss still warm in their hearts, kin of the victims of the 2007 Samjhauta blasts today assembled at the graveyard of their loved ones at Maharana village. It was a long and lonely ride for many who came here this morning and spend some time at the graves of their relatives.

Javed from Gaya in Bihar, who had lost his brother Shabir Ahemed and sister-in-law Samina and their four kids, could hardly control his emotions and recollected the days he had spend with them before they had boarded the Samjhauta Express on February 18, 2007.

His brother and his family, who were on the way to Pakistan, had come here to visit Javed after 15 years. Even as he could identify the bodies of his brother, sister-in-law and one of their daughters, Javed is still clueless about the three sons of his brother, who died in the blasts.

Mohamad Zakir from Pakistan, who was on board the fateful train, had seen his father Mohamad Safiq and mother Ashraf dying in front of his eyes. He himself had suffered severe burn injuries for which he had to undergo treatment for a long period.

The bodies of passengers, many of whom were burnt beyond recognition, were buried in Maharana village graveyard after consulting relatives and the Haryana Wakf Board officials.

Chandigarh, February 19
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (ad hoc) today expelled its general secretary Didar Singh Nalvi for his “anti-organisational” activities. A few days ago, the group led by Nalvi had expelled HSGPC chief Jagdish Singh Jhinda.

The decision to expel Nalvi was taken at a meeting of the state executive committee of the HSGPC chaired by a founder member, Sampooran Singh, held in Kurukshetra.

According to Jhinda, nine out of 11 members of the executive committee were present at the meeting, which also appointed Joga Singh of Yamunanagar as general secretary of the HSGPC. It also appointed Karnail Singh as vice-president of the Yamunanagar unit.

According to Jhinda, Mohanjit Singh, president of the Panipat district of the committee, has also been expelled along with Sinder Singh and Manjit Singh, also of Panipat, for their “anti-committee” activities. The new general secretary has been authorised to appoint new office-bearers of the Panipat unit in consultation with Joginder Singh Chawla, vice-president of the Panipat unit.

He said the executive committee had amended the constitution of the HSGPC to make provisions of two general secretaries and two joint secretaries.

While Joga Singh had been appointed and given charge of affairs of the Kurukshetra-Karnal belt, another general secretary would be appointed from the Sirsa-Hisar belt by the committee in consultation with the Sikhs of western Haryana.

Similarly, Satbir Singh has been appointed joint secretary for the east region.

Karnal, February 19
Deputy Director-General (Horticulture), Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), H.P. Singh, today stressed the need to promote bed-cultivation in different crops to save water and exhorted the farmers to adopt laser-leveling technologies for increasing production and cutting costs.

Inaugurating the two-day national seminar on “Recent technologies in horticulture crop production” at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here, he stressed that 566 odd Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVKs) in the country should intensify their efforts to disseminate the contemporary technologies in specific farming system’s prospective and programmes on bee keeping, vermi-compost, vermi-wash making and seed production.

He revealed that contribution of horticultural crops to the GDP was 29 per cent whereas only 10 per cent of cultivable area in the country was under different horticultural crops.

The seminar was being attended by over 500 delegates including scientists, extension functionaries, farmers and farm women of Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Dr. A.K. Srivastava, Director, NDRI, said that different institutes have developed and released around 600 varieties of vegetables and fruits increasing the per person per day availability of fruits and vegetables in the country to 47 grams and 130 grams, respectively.

Intensified efforts should be made to increase per person per day availability of fruits and vegetables to 97 grams and 300 grams, respectively, he added.

Dr. R.P. Gupta, Director, NHRDF, Nasik, said kharif onion could be introduced and sown in Northern India and said 10,000 hectare area was under kharif onion in Haryana while Rajasthan had around 20,000 hectares under kharif onion crop. About 75 lakh metric tonnes of garlic was produced in the country and in Himachal large area had been brought under garlic cultivation as a result of extension work of the NHRDF, he added.

Dr. S.K. Pandey, Director, Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla, said the CPRI had developed a number of varieties of potatoes, being grown in various areas.

Faridabad, February 19
Three local leaders, including two from the Congress, joined the BSP from the Faridabad parliamentary constituency here today.

The two Congress leaders who joined the BSP are councillor Pratap Singh Chawla and head of the OBC cell of Badkhal unit of the Congress Jhonny Narauna.

Chawla has been primary member of the Congress since 1960.

The three leaders announced joining the BSP in the presence of the party nominee for Faridabad parliamentary constituency Chetan Sharma and state general-secretaries Suraj Pal (Ammu) and Amrit Pal Sharma.

Welcoming the leaders, Amrit Pal Sharma announced their appointments to various posts of the Faridabd district unit party.

Jhonny has been appointed as head of the OBC and BC cell and Chawla has been made the president of the coordination committee. Another leader, Azad Khan, who joined the BSP, has been made the general secretary.

Suraj Pal said with three leaders joining the BSP, the organisation had achieved its aim of social engineering in Faridabad.

Chawla alleged that he was compelled to quit the Congress as the workers were not given respect and recognition.

He further alleged that Haryana minister for local bodies and local Congress MLA AC Chaudhary had been playing partisan politics among party workers.

All government works in Faridabad were given to acolytes of the minister. Besides, funds from the government, National Capital Region Board and the Haryana government for development works in Faridabad were not spent properly, he added.

Kaithal, February 19
Mystery shrouds the death of Sudhir Kalra (38) of Chandigarh whose body was found in his car near the residence of his in-laws in old sabzi mandi here today.

Some local relatives informed his parents in Chandigarh, who rushed to Kaithal. His family members alleged that he had been poisoned by his in-laws. However, his in-laws said he died of heart failure and they even took him to a nearby nursing home for treatment.

After a postmortem, the body was handed over to the family members. A panel of three doctors of the civil hospital who conducted the autopsy sent the viscera and blood samples of the deceased to the PGIMS, Rohtak, for examination to ascertain the cause of death.

SP Sultan Singh and DSP Kuldip Singh inspected the site where the body was found in the car. The police was reportedly seeking legal opinion to register the case.

According to Rajesh Kalra, brother of the deceased, his sister-in-law belonged to Kaithal and her father Jagdish Narang, a resident of old sabzi mandi, Kaithal, had brought her and two kids to Kaithal on Saturday after receiving information about some quarrel between husband and wife.

Krishan Kalra, father of the deceased, told mediapersons that he suspected that his son had been done to death by his in-laws. He also alleged that cash, finger rings, a golden chain and a mobile were missing from the body of his son.