Chandigarh, March 5
In a decision that could lift property prices in Haryana despite the present slump in the market, the Haryana Urban Development Authority is ready with a draft policy for registration of independent floors of residential buildings.

“The instructions, approved by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will be circulated to all HUDA administrators shortly and the registration of independent floors is likely to begin by next week,” TC Gupta, Chief Administrator, HUDA, stated.

While HUDA had initially resisted the move when the case of allowing the registration of independent floors was put up to the Group of Ministers, political will prevailed in the matter. Some builders in Gurgaon had already made two floors and sold these to independent owners on the GPA. With the coming through of this proposal, this sale, too, will be regularised and registered.

The registration of independent floors in HUDA sectors will be allowed only in case of buildings constructed on plots of 180 sq yards and above area. However, this restriction in size of plot will not be applicable to vacant plots existing in old and new sectors of HUDA.

Laying down the parameters for floorwise registration of buildings, an independent unit can exist on each floor, entitled to separate utility connections such as water and power supply.

However, a basement will not be considered an independent floor but will form a part of the ground floor or can even be used as a common area for parking by owners of the different floors. Similarly, a garage, servant quarters, store and open spaces will be a part of the ground floor.

While HUDA has decided not to allow any increase in the maximum permissible floor area ratio, an additional 1 per stamp duty will be charged from the owners. HUDA’s policy, approved by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recently, states that owners will be eligible to transfer ownership if all three floors are completed in accordance with the building plans and bylaws. Also, a joint undertaking by way of an affidavit from the “transferee” and “transferors” to complete construction of their respective floors in a specified period for plans approved for all floors has been provided for. While payment of the full cost of the plot, clearance of all dues are mandatory, it has been laid down that adequate arrangement for parking within the premises to avoid misuse of roads and public property is a must.

All an owner needs to do for transfer of ownership of floors is to apply on the prescribed pro forma with copies of documents like copies of building plans, occupation certificate, the original allotment letter and Rs 10,000. This shall have to be done within 90 days failing which a fresh application will have to be made. The Estate Officer, upon fulfillment of conditions and payment of fee, will grant permission. 

Palwal, March 5
The internecine battle between the two factions of the district units of the Congress in Palwal and Faridabad came to the fore today with leaders rooting for candidate of their choice from the Faridabad parliamentary constituency in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

Palwal and Faridabad districts fall in Faridabad parliamentary constituency, which was represented by Avtar Singh Bhadana of the Congress in the just dissolved Lok Sabha.

Local Congress MLA and Chairman of the Haryana Administrative Reforms Commission Karan Dalal and his supporters held a parallel meeting to that convened by the Palwal District Congress Committee (DCC-I).

The DCC-I had convened the meeting as per the schedule drawn up by the campaign committee of the Haryana Congress to formulate an electoral strategy for the Faridabad parliamentary constituency.

Chairman of the campaign committee Venod Sharma and President of the Haryana Congress Phool Chand Mullana attended both the meetings.

While they remained non-committal on the issue of party nominee in the meeting organised by Dalal, they praised Bhadana as a national leader.

Dalal is aspiring to get the party ticket from the Faridabad parliamentary constituency. His supporters had been trying to put pressure on the party leadership not to re-nominate Bhadana.

However, leaders of the two factions had one point of convergence. They swore by the development works done by the Haryana government.

In a similar kind of meeting organised by the Faridabad Congress Committee in Ballabhgarh yesterday, supporters of Bhadana and his opponents in the party came to blows.

Those holding the middle ground in the Congress here are of the view that both Dalal and Bhadana are unacceptable. While many in the Congress alleged that Dalal was trying to run a parallel Congress in Palwal, the allegation against Bhadana was that he adopted “unctuous” tone only at the time of elections.

According to a leader, the personal image of the Chief Minister would play a crucial role in determining the fate of the Congress nominee, whoever he was, in the outcome of the hustings.

Yamunanagar, March 5
The power situation today further worsened in the state due to a rise in consumption following an increase in the temperature. The power shortage in the state has increased to more than 220 lakh units per day.

The power scenario has worsened in the state due to the non-functioning of two units of 110 MW each of the super thermal plant, Panipat. While one unit of the plant has been shut down after a boiler leakage, the other is closed for maintenance.

While people in urban areas have been facing power cuts of over 12 hours, the situation is even worse in rural areas with power cuts of over 18 hours.

Moreover, coal shortage has also become a cause for concern at the Panipat and Yamunanagar thermal plants. The thermal plant at Panipat is left with a day’s coal stock, while the Yamunanagar plant has a stock for three days, according to sources.

The sources said the demand for power had been increasing gradually with a rise in the temperature. Power supply in the state was only 670 lakh units from all sources while the consumption had increased to 890 lakh units per day. The state has been purchasing 244 lakh units every day to check the power shortage, the sources added.

Sirsa, March 5
Madan Lal Bajaj, president of the local Chemists and Druggists Association, was today arrested by the police and produced before a local court, which sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.

Bajaj was arrested by the police under Sections 201, 206, 434 and 380 of the IPC for causing disappearance of evidence, destroying a landmark fixed by a public authority and theft for incidents pertaining to October 5, 2008, when the drug authorities had raided some chemist shops and sealed the premises after a group of chemists allegedly attacked them and stopped them from completing inspections.

Bajaj was later accused of breaking the seals of a shop and removing incriminating material from there in the thick of night.

Later, the drug authorities, along with the police, had seized a huge cache of narcotic material from an unlicensed godown here and had booked Bajal along with Raj Kumar under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

However, the police later removed the name of Bajaj from the FIR.

Bajaj was arrested by the police today in connection with the case of breaking of 
seals and removal of incriminating material from his shop.

Chandigarh, March 5
The Indian National Lok Dal today alleged that the Hooda government in the state had been violating the model code of conduct, which came into force after the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections by the Election Commission of India.

A delegation of the party led by former MLA Abhey Singh Chautala met Chief Electoral Officer of the state Sajjan Singh and apprised him of the “grave irregularities” being committed by the Hooda government after the announcement of the elections.

The INLD leaders alleged that the government was still according financial sanction worth hundreds of crores of rupees for development works in back dates with the objective of furthering the prospects of the ruling party. This exercise of according financial sanction in back dates, obviously with a view to influencing the voters in favour of the Congress, had been continuing for the past three days in various offices.

The party demanded that all such back-dated sanctions be got cancelled immediately and the necessary action be taken against the Chief Minister and the officers responsible for issuing such sanctions.

The INLD had earlier complained to the election authorities that government hoardings continued to be displayed at public places even after the enforcement of the code.

Later the party leaders said that Sajjan Singh had assured the delegation that the Election Commission had decided to take action against the erring officers. He also reportedly assured the delegation that development works undertaken on the basis of the cheques issued after February 27 would be considered a violation of the code. He said the DCs had been instructed to get removed all hoardings/publicity material till March 5 evening.

Among those who were in the delegation were RS Chaudhary, KC Bangar and Pardeep Choudhary.

Chandigarh, March 5
Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur and Justice Hemant Gupta today directed the Haryana police chief to consider the plea of “Delhi Gurgaon Super Connectivity” for providing security to its staff at the toll plazas on the expressway linking Delhi with Gurgaon.

The directions were issued after the petitioner expressed willingness to pay for the security. The company was seeking directions for providing security to the staff, especially the ones entrusted with the task of tax collection.

Kurukshetra, March 5
Sessions Judge, Kurukshetra, RC Bansal today sentenced Vachitar Singh (22), Balwinder Singh, alias Goma (25), Niranjan Singh (44) and Malak Singh (22), all residents of Pipli Majra village, in this district to life imprisonment and rigorous imprisonment for six months under Sections 302 and 323, read with Section 34, of the IPC for murdering Kuljinder Singh and injuring the complainant, Ranjit Singh, alias Jeeta, and Bhupinder Singh in Jhansa village in this district on October 2, 2006.

They have also been fined Rs 5,000 each. In default of payment of the fine, they will have to further undergo rigorous imprisonment for six months.

Both sentences shall run concurrently while the term already undergone by the convicts during the investigation and the trial will be set off.

All four accused had committed the crime due to personal grudge.

Karnal, March 5
A new variety of basmati rice, 1401, akin to PUSA basmati 1121, will be released soon by the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI).

Research is going on the new variety and it is expected to be released and reach farmers within a year, Prof KR Kaundal, Joint Director (Research), ICAR, today said.

Kaundal, who was here to participate in “Basmati Bij Divas” (basmati seed day), told The Tribune that the new variety would be disease resistant and aerobatic in nature with value addition.

PUSA basmati 1121 with big grain size helped the farmers generate an income of Rs 500 crore this year and the new variety (1401) would be a step further in that direction, he said, adding that research was a continuous process and more verities would be developed in course of time.

Stressing the need to double the foodgrain production by 2050, Kaundal said more area would have to be brought under hybrid crop cultivation for enhanced yield. Citing the example of China, where 55 per cent of the land was under hybrid cultivation and the average yield was 6.2 ton per hectare, he said only 2.8 per cent of the area was under hybrid cultivation in India with an average yield of 3.2 tons per hectare.

The IARI, a premier institution for research in rice, had shifted the focus from non-basmati to basmati rice cultivation to enable farmers to fetch higher returns. 

Chandigarh, March 5
Issuing schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Sajjan Singh said the notification for the same in Haryana would be issued on April 11 and the last date for filing nominations would be April 18.

He said the scrutiny of nominations would be done on April 20 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature would be April 22.

The polling would take place on May 7 and the votes would be counted on May 16. The election process would be completed before May 28.

He added that in view of the enforcement of the model code of conduct, no fresh release of funds under the Member of Parliament, including Rajya Sabha members, Local Area Development Fund would be made.

Similarly, no fresh release of funds under the MLAs or MLCs’ fund would be made till the completion of the election process. While no new work could be started, work already in progress could continue.

On the issue of opinion polls and exit polls, Sajjan Singh said no result of any such poll conducted at any time would be published, publicised or disseminated. He said the time specified under these instructions would be during the period of 48 hours ending with the hour fixed for closing of the poll in an election held in a single phase.