Karnal, April 7
The meeting of state executive (adhoc) of the Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak committee convened by Jagdish Singh Jhinda at Kurukshetra yesterday ended in a fiasco as 16 of 31 members did not turn up for the meeting and no decision could be taken on crucial issue of extending support to any party in the ensuing Lok Sabha polls.

In an apparent bid to hide his embarrassment, a ruffled Jhinda, who has convened next meeting on April 11 alleged that the members belonging to the Badal faction did not attend the meeting, conveniently ignoring the absentee members belonging to rival faction led by Didar Singh Nalvi.

The Haryana Sikhs, already divided on the issue of extending support in the Lok Sabha polls are in a fix and the crusaders for a separate SGPC for the state are looking for some escape route.

There are no signs of ceasefire among the warring factions and this infighting has further confounded the confusion among the Sikhs.

Insiders in both factions confide that a section of Haryana Sikhs was in favour of Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh and obviously wanted to vote for the UPA but the decision of the Congress to give ticket to former minister Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar from Delhi has added fuel to fire forcing this section to go on a back foot.

The turmoil in the Sikh community over ticket to Tytler and Sajjan Kumar has come as a shot in the arm for the Haryana Sikhs aligned with the SAD and they have become more vocal.

The Nalvi faction was openly attacking Jhinda for not perusing the cause of a separate SGPC for the state and hobnobbing with the Congress while the Jhinda faction was sticking to its old stand that all options were open and the decision would be taken through consensus.

Some neutral Sikh leaders confided that under present circumstances no Sikh could openly support the Congress or the INLD-BJP alliance and going with the BSP or the HJC would mean wasting the precious vote. A conscience vote appeared to be the only solution to wriggle out of this intricate situation, they observed. 

Panipat, April 7
Former minister and state spokesman for the BJP Ram Vilas Sharma here said today the NDA might consider filing contempt petition against the UPA government for not executing the orders of hanging Afzal Guru, who had been held guilty of planning the attack on Parliament in December 2001.

Speaking to the mediapersons, here today, the senior BJP leader claimed that the party would make certain that the conspirators awaiting their death penalty were hanged within 24-hour of the NDA forming the government at the center.

He asserted that the election manifesto released by the BJP had send shiver down the spines of the opposition party as the issues raised by the party affected the common man directly. He said announcement of bringing home the “black money” that was lying in foreign banks had given sleep nights to some of the top politicians of the country. He said the party was quite adamant on the issue and it would initiate all possible measures so that the money, which actually belonged to the public, was brought back into the country within one month.

Ram Vilas Sharma said the Congress in the state was a divided house as the senior leaders did not have shared the same opinion on various issues, including allotment of party tickets and were working against each other instead. This, he said, would benefit the BJP-INLD candidates in most of the parliamentary constituencies in the state.

Chandigarh, April 7
The Kurukshetra district administration has got registered a criminal case against the sitting Congress MP from here Naveen Jindal on the directions of the Election Commission.

The EC has also issued a notice to Health Minister Kartar Devi to explain why action should not be taken against her for travelling in a vehicle with red beacon atop it to a public function near Panipat when the model code of conduct is in force.

Meanwhile, notices to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kartar Devi were served today. They have been asked to explain their conduct within 48 hours.

The industrialist-turned-politician is again contesting the Kurukshetra seat on the Congress ticket.

According to information received here, the case has been registered under the provisions of the Haryana Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1989.

It is learnt that the EC had received a complaint that a hoarding has been put up near Shahabad in Kurukshetra district along the GT road on which photographs of Jindal, Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda were displayed.

On the directions of the EC, the district administration had asked those who had put up the hoarding to remove it. However, they took the plea that since they had hired the space, they were not covered under the Act.

The EC yesterday asked the administration to register a case against Jindal and others. Its directions were carried out today. Jindal has been asked to remove the hoarding within 24 hours.

President of the Haryana unit of the INLD Ashok Arora has welcomed the registration of the case against Jindal.

Incidentally, Arora is contesting against Jindal on the INLD ticket.

Sonepat, April 7
When the BJP, the BSP and the NCP candidates for the Sonepat parliamentary constituency are already in the field to seek voters’ blessings for the forthcoming parliamentary election, the tug of war among the aspirants for the Congress ticket from this seat have compelled the party workers waiting and guessing for the name to be announced by the party high command.

Similarly, the HJC has also not finalised the name of its candidate from this constituency. According to sources, the party leaders are waiting for announcement of the Congress candidate so that the party could finalise its candidate depending on the caste and area equations. The party had also roped in Umesh Sharma, a former AICC member, who contested the Gohana Assembly byelection last year and Suman Singh Sharma, a Brahmin leader.

BJP candidate Kishan Singh Sangwan, who had won three consecutive elections in 1998, 1999 and 2004, had already covered more than a dozen villages and residential localities in the towns of all nine Assembly constituencies so far. State media in charge, Rajiv Jain giving details of the areas covered, claimed that the party candidate was getting good response from the people and he would be in a position to cover all villages and localities easily during the campaign.

But it is to be judged from Sangwan’s election meetings, he was not getting expected company of the leading local INLD leaders though the INLD and the BJP are the alliance partner in the state.

The BSP was the first party to announce Devraj devan, two term Independent MLA from the Sonepat Assembly constituency, as party candidate and Devan has taken lead in reaching to the people for vote. Even the party supreme Mayawati had also addressed an election rally at Jind in support of party candidates, including Devan.

However, before launching of the election campaign, the BSP’s social engineering formula suffered a set back when party’s state general secretary and in charge of the Sonepat parliamentary constituency Suman Singh Sharma and many others left the party and joined the HJC.

The NCP, which is an ally of the UPA in the Centre, has fielded Sukhbir Singh Farmana, party MLA from the Rohat Assembly constituency, as its candidate. His nomination has irked the national general secretary of party’s youth wing, Sanjay Badwasnia, who had reportedly threatened to resign from the party in protest against the nomination of Farmana.

Sirsa, April 7
Notwithstanding the defiant postures adopted by Sirsa MP Atma Singh Gill after denial of party ticket, the Congress workers are elated at the nomination of Indian Youth Congress president Ashok Tanwar from here.

A large majority of the Congress workers feel they have been saved from embarrassment by the party high command by denying ticket to the sitting MP, whose name had once figured in a rest house controversy at Narwana.

“The party has enhanced the importance of the Sirsa (reserve) parliamentary constituency by fielding Tanwar from here. All workers of the party will now work towards his victory,” said Naveen Kedia, a Youth Congress leader from Sirsa.

Tanwar’s nomination has received much applause at Ratia, the hometown of Gill.

Mandeep Kaur Gill, deputy chairperson of the Zila Parishad, Fatehabad, said the Congress high command has saved its workers from the ignominy of seeking votes for Gill, who, she said, had become a matter of ridicule in the public after the Narwana episode.

Gill, it may be recalled, was found in the company of two women in a rest house at Narwana by a section of media and the INLD activists has accused him of moral turpitude.

Lekh Raj Lali, spokesman for the Congress at Ratia said the sitting MP had not only ignored party workers during the five years of his term, but also threw all social norms and political standards to the wind.

Meanwhile, Congress nominee Ashok Tanwar is arriving at Sirsa on April 8.

Party workers at Fatehabad will receive him at Fatehabad town first and after that he would be received in Sirsa in the afternoon.

Tanwar, meanwhile, refused to be drawn into the controversy with Gill on the issue of he being an outsider and said Atma Singh Gill is a senior leader of the Congress and he would not respond to his allegations.

Chandigarh, April 7
Congress MP from Rohtak Deepinder Singh Hooda claimed here today that the UPA would emerge as victorious in the Lok Sabha elections.

In a statement issued here today Hooda said the people would vote for the UPA because its government, under the leadership of Manmohan Singh and guidance of Sonia Gandhi, had done a lot for farmers and labourers during the past five years. Similarly, the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in the state had taken certain historic decisions for weaker and backward sections of the society, especially the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes.

Obviously, with an eye on successful BSP election rallies addressed by its president Mayawati in the state, Bhupinder highlighted various decisions taken by the state government for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes.

These decisions included allotment of 100-yard plots to the SCs/BCs family as well as to those living below the poverty line under the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojana. He said these plots would be developed at the cost of Rs 2,400 crore by providing water, electricity and roads. It would benefit about six lakh families.

Besides this, the Hooda government had decided to provide 200-litre water tanks, taps and free water connections to about 8.5 lakh SC families under the Indira Gandhi Drinking Water Yojana.

With a view to encouraging the SCs/BCs to send their children to schools, the state government had launched a revolutionary scheme of giving scholarship to every student coming from the SC/BC and the BPL families.

Karnal, April 7
Strict vigil would be maintained along the inter-state borders between Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to check smuggling of illegal arms and liquor to ensure free, fair and smooth conduct of the Lok sabha polls in the twin states.

This was decided at the high level joint meeting of senior administrative and police officers of the districts sharing a common border here yesterday. The District Magistrates, Commissioners, IGs, DIGs and SSPs of Karnal, Yamuna Nagar and Rohtak in Haryana and Muzaffar Nagar and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh attended the meeting.

Smuggling of illegal arms, liquor and vehicles being major factors in vitiating the elections, the meeting decided to virtually seal the borders for anti-social and criminal elements indulging in such acts 48 hours before commencement of polling.

The meeting also decided that the officials of two states should exchange the voter’s lists of polling booths located in the border villages to check bogus or double voting by anti-social elements. It was further decided that field staff being the key officials to act at the ground level, a meeting of SHOs and Chowki in charge of the border villages would be held at Shamli (UP) on April 10. Both states agreed that adequate police force should be deployed to check the criminal activities during the elections and the Commissioner, Rohtak division, SP Gupta assured that whatever help was required by the UP administration would be provided.

The Commissioner, Saharanpur (UP), RP Shukla said there were 34 villages in UP along the Haryana border where “nakabandi” was required during elections.

The SSP, Karnal, AS Chawala sought the help of the UP police in nabbing 31 persons against whom non-bailable warrant were pending execution, seven parole jumpers, 40 proclaimed offenders and 260 bail jumpers. 

Ambala, April 7
Atam Prakash Manchanda, state president of the BJP, yesterday stated that Varun Gandhi was being targeted by the BSP in UP. He said Varun Gandhi’s remarks did call for the NSA being slapped against him and it had been done intentionally.

Addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of the inauguration of a BJP office in Ambala Cantonment, Manchanda said former MP Rattan Lal Kataria, BJP nominee from Ambala, was a person of the masses and was closer to the people than Congress nominee and sitting MP Selja.

He said Kataria and Sonepat candidate Kishan Singh Sangwan would file their nomination papers on April 16.

Chandigarh, April 7
As the wheat procurement begins to pick up, private players have completely eluded the mandis of Haryana.

All wheat stocks, 5.82 lakh metric tonne (LMT), that have so far arrived in various mandis of the state, have been picked up by various government agencies.

The private players- mainly flour-mill owners in the state, have picked up just 1.073 tonne of the wheat that has arrived in the mandis till date.

This is just 0.25 per cent of the total wheat that has been procured in the state till date. The maximum wheat has been procured by HAFED (1.88 LMT), followed by the food and supplies department (1.62 LMT).

Vijay Kumar Arora, president of the Kacha Arhtiya Association, Matloda, said that though 20,000 tonne of wheat had arrived in the mandi till today, no private player had shown any interest.

Agreed Manish Kharbanda, a leading commission agent in Ladwa mandi, “Unlike previous years, no agri-corporate or private player has shown any interest in wheat procurement. All wheat coming to Ladwa is being bought by the state government agencies and the FCI”.

With the wheat price in the international market hovering around Rs 950 per quintal, the high minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1,080 per quintal has ensured that the private players remain away from the procurement process.

Even the high-tax structure in the state has led to a disinterest in wheat trade from the state.

These taxes (10.5 per cent, which includes market fee, rural development fund, VAT, cess on VAT and arhtiya commission) are about Rs 145 per quintal.

Also, freight charges from Haryana to South India (for example Bangalore) works out to be Rs 160 per quintal.

This means that the price a private trader will have to pay on each quintal of wheat procured from the state, including the MSP of Rs 1,080, is Rs 1,380 per quintal.

With the international price of wheat at Rs 950 per quintal and with Rs 100 per quintal as freight charge, importing wheat is a financially viable option for the private players.

The lack of interest in wheat procurement shown by the private players also means that the farmers are not getting a higher rate than the MSP. Senior officials in the Food and Supplies Department said that because of shortage of storage space, the government wanted the private players to buy wheat stocks reaching the mandis. “But no one seems to be coming forward.

The minimal buying by the private players has also meant that the farmers are getting just RS 2- 3 per quintal more than the MSP,” he rued. 

Fatehabad, April 7
District Magistrate JS Ahlawat today issued prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC banning the burning of wheat straw after harvesting of the crop.

Straw burning had led to several incidents of fire in the area last year and on about two occasions, large areas of agricultural fields running in to several kilometers had come under fire resulting in loss to cattle life and property.

The orders issued by the DM said burning of wheat straw not only resulted in pollution, but it also led to loss of property. — TNS

Chandigarh, April 7
Punjab and Haryana have locked horns over the issue of embanking the Ghaggar river. While Punjab has completed embanking a large part of the inter-state river to stop it from causing floods, Haryana has refused to allow Punjab to carry out the work on the rest of the river.

“Haryana had agreed to phase I of the project and we have completed over 22 km of embanking. Now, for the second phase, Haryana is opposing the project for no reason at all,” said Punjab Chief Secretary Ramesh Inder Singh.

The Punjab government had prepared a project for canalisation of the river with the construction of embankments. Phase- 1 of the project from Khanoauri to Makroar Sahib was approved by the Ghaggar standing committee and is currently under implementation. The work is expected to be completed in about two weeks.

Haryana irrigation secretary RN Prashar said the project was not technically sound. “Embanking the river when it nears Haryana would cause it to flood our areas. We cannot approve a technically faulty project. Punjab would have to get the project approved from the Ghaggar standing committee and the central water commission. If these bodies approve the project, we would give our comments on it. We have no objection to a project that does not harm our interests,” added Prashar.

Yamunanagar, April 7
People of the state are likely to face a shortage of sand, grit and stones for the next two months as the district administration has ordered the closure of mining in Yamuna and seasonal rivulets and work at 250 stone crushers has also come to a halt in the district.

The contract of mining ended on March 31 and the administration did not auction the mining sites following the imposition of the model code of conduct in view of the Lok Sabha elections.

The shortage of sand, grit and stones is likely to lead to a hike in the cost of construction as the people have to get supply of these materials from distant places, including Uttar Pradesh.

It is learnt that the state earned an average Rs 10 crore from the auction of the mining sites in the district.

Now, mining in the district has been completely banned till further auction of the mining sites, which will happen only after the Lok Sabha elections. However, the shortage of these materials will further encourage illegal mining.

DC Amit Kumar Aggarwal has ordered the registration of an FIR against those found involved in illegal mining and has constituted a task force for its compliance.

Stone crusher owners revealed that the mining sites in the district were providing over 5,000 trucks of sand, grit and stones to the state and other places.

Earlier, the mining sites were suctioned six years ago, the contract for which was expired on March 31.

Only seven days’ time was given to the mining contractors to clear the already dug-out sand and stones.

Besides trucks, nearly 1,000 tractor-trailer owners and 15,000 labourers were also dependent on mining work, stone crushers and screening plants.

SDM Harish Chander Jain, who is a member of the task force, said in order to prevent illegal mining a detailed list of the mining sites had been provided to all members of the task force.