Karnal, June 25
The worsening power crisis that has gripped Haryana took an ugly turn here today when residents of Gharibaral village in Gharaunda of Karnal district opened fire on villagers of Barana village in Panipat injuring five persons. Residents of Gharibaral village had allegedly set up a cross-connection for drawing power to which the residents of Barana village objected.

Tension mounted in the twin villages yesterday and the SDO and SHO rushed to the spot and solved the situation.

Today, villagers of Barana again objected to the unauthorised drawl of power by residents of Gharibaral village and during the argument one of them opened fire injuring five persons. Krishan, Jitender, Sachin, Shahjdeed and Kuldeep of Barana villge, who received injuries, were rushed to a hospital. While Shahjdeed was admitted to the trauma centre in Karnal, four others were rushed to Panipat.

Additional DSP Ved Prakash reached the spot and pacified the villagers. The situation was tense but under control, he said. The police had been deployed to avoid any untoward incident and efforts were underway to bring rapprochement among warring groups.

Karnal, June 25
The spectre of drought looms large over eight Haryana districts facing acute water shortage.

There was shortfall of about 7,000 cusecs of water per day as the supply from the Sutlej and Yamuna canal water schemes has dropped to 50 per cent.

While water for irrigation has become scarce in Kurukshetra, Karnal, Ambala and Yamunanagar, people in large areas of Sonepat, Mahendragarh, Rewari and Jind are facing drinking water shortage.

The irrigation and drinking water demands of these districts are met by water released from the Bhakra Dam and Yamuna waters. However, the supply from the dam has come down from 4,000 cusecs to 3,000 cusecs while the supply from the Yamuna dipped to 2,300 cusecs to 2,800 cusecs during the past 10 days and marginally improved to 3,300 cusecs on June 25 and 3,800 cusecs today. The normal supply from this source was 6,000 cusecs last year while the lowest supply during the lean days of June varied between 3,500 cusecs and 4,000 cusecs.

J.S.Goyat, Superintending Engineer (Irrigation), Karnal, said the shortfall in supply was below 7,000 cusecs against the normal supply of 15,000 cusecs.The situation could deteriorate if the dry spell continued.

The BBMB had curtailed the supply from the Bhakra Dam by 6,000 cusecs yesterday and with the water level falling each day, the supply could be further curtailed, affecting the northern states, including Haryana.

The farmers are desperately looking for early rains as the time for paddy transplantation is running out. If farmers go in for transplantation, it could lead to losses due to the dry spell and not going ahead with transplantation would mean a poor crop as basmati and non-basmati transplantation must be completed by July 12 and June 30, respectively, say agricultural experts.

Kaithal, June 25
Shamsher Singh Surjewala, president, All-India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress, has said the administration has constituted committees at the district level to tackle the problems arising out of the delay in monsoon.

Addressing a press conference here today, he said instructions had been issued to store water in tanks and reservoirs to meet the emergency need of water. In view of the prediction regarding the delay in monsoon, Surjewala urged farmers to postpone the plantation of paddy till early July. He also advised farmers to sow crops which demanded lesser quantity of water.

He said agriculture scientists ought to educate farmers to tackle the situation arising out of shortage of water. Surjewala, who is also an MLA from Kaithal, said since India’s economy was agro-based, the deficiency of rainfall disturbed it.

The veteran Congress leader said the Congress government at the Centre was about to bring about a legislation which would make it obligatory on the government to provide food to all citizens of the country.

Surjewala said the present shortage of power would be overcome shortly as the government had made arrangements with some other states to divert some power to the state. The farmer leader, however, urged farmers to refrain from resorting to rasta roko agitatons, which caused great inconvenience to the pubic. It deprived some patients to get treatment in time and also deprived students to appear in exminations.

He said the number of divisons of Public Health department had been raised from one to two and now two executive engineers and four sub-divisional officers would be posted here.

Chandigarh, June 25
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said an international flower market would be set up near Ganaur in the National Capital Region (NCR) so that farmers of the area could get remunerative prices of their produce.

This was revealed by the Chief Minister while reviewing the performance of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board (HSAMB) here today.

Hooda directed the HSAMB authorities that to maintain the quality of work while executing the developmental works. He also directed that stringent steps should be taken to plug the tax evasion on cotton so that the revenue of the government could be increased.

The CM said the HSAMB would incur a sum of Rs 600 crore on various developmental works in the state during the current financial year.

He said under the National Horticulture Mission, the mandis had been constructed at Abub Shahar and Shahbad at a cost of Rs 9.54 crore. Besides this, the construction work was also on at eight other places.

Agriculture Minister HS Chatha said with a view to bring transparency in the board, e-tendering system had been introduced.

He suggested that a senior level officer should be deputed in those mandis where the revenue generation was more than 20 crore annually.

He also advocated that the training should be imparted to the employees as it would help in more transparency.

Chandigarh, June 25
The Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) has modified the policy for allotment of LPG sites.

Stating this here today, a spokesman for the HUDA said as per the modified policy, nationalised oil and gas companies, private oil and gas companies authorised to retail LPG by the Ministry of Petroleum, Government of India, dealers or distributors of these companies within municipal limits of a town would be eligible to apply for LPG sites in the Urban Estate of HUDA.

The available sites in Urban Estates would be advertised by the zonal administrators through newspapers for inviting applications from eligible applicants, the spokesman said, adding that the applications received would be scrutinised by a committee constituted under the chairmanship of the zonal administrator concerned with the Deputy Commissioner concerned or his nominee and the estate officer of HUDA as members.

He said after the scrutiny, eligible applicants would be interviewed by the committee, which would send its recommendations to HQs within 2 months of the closing date of receipt of applications and on the basis of recommendations of the above said committee, allotment would be got approved from the chairman, HUDA/Authority.

The offer of allotment would be made through a Letter of Intent (LOI) and the regular allotment letter would be issued only upon timely completion of formalities prescribed in the LOI, he added.

He said the rate of allotment would be the current rate of industrial plots in the Industrial Sector in which the LPG godown sites were located. In case the LPG godown sites were not located in an industrial zone, their rate would be worked out/approved from the HQ’s separately by the zonal administrators. However, the rate so worked out would not be less than the current rate of industrial plots in the latest Industrial Sector in that Urban Estate.

Sirsa, June 25
Thanks to the lackadaisical approach of the district health authorities, Sirsa residents are being forced to use adulterated milk.

Five out of the 10 samples of milk taken from various points in the district from January to April this year have been found adulterated, making the adulteration rate as high as 50 per cent.

However, the sampling of milk and its products is too slack in the district as only three out of the 29 samples of food items taken by the Government Food Inspector (GFI) this month were of milk and its products.

Over 500 milk vendors, a large number of dairies and eight chilling centres collect and distribute milk in the district. Residents have alleged that adulterated milk was being sold in the district with impunity.

“Over half a dozen milk cream dairies have been operating on the outskirts of the town, where milk vendors visit daily to get the cream separated from milk and then mix the toned milk with one prepared from powdered milk,” alleged Nirmal Ganeriwala, state secretary of the Haryana Agarwal Vikas Sangthan and secretary of the District Congress Committee.

Ganeriwala alleged that despite complaints regarding the supply of adulterated milk, the authorities have failed to act.

Sirsa GFI Subhash Chander said they have a target of taking 30 samples of food items in a month and he had been achieving those targets every month. “We cannot take samples of milk every time as we have to check other commodities too,” he added.

He, however, admitted that adulteration in milk was much higher than that in other food items and five out of the 10 samples of milk taken between January and April have been found below par.

“No synthetic milk has been ever found in Sirsa district. Every time a milk sample tests negative, it is due to the shortage of fat or solid not fat (SNF) in the milk,” maintained Subhash Chander.

He said the GFIs have to look after duties like taking samples as well as prosecuting food adulterators in courts and hence left with little time to think beyond achieving their minimum targets.

Gurgaon, June 25
The office of a BPO company located near Hero Honda Chowk here was damaged by protesting trainees who alleged that the management had failed to pay their salaries for the past few months.

The incident was reported at Aegis Aspire, a BPO located on plot no. 6 in Sector 34, around 10 am when trainees gathered in front of the office building. They first staged a protest by raising slogans and later broke windowpanes by throwing stones. According to a trainee who did not want to be named, hundreds of workers had not been paid their dues for several months.

“The management has been delaying the payment of dues on some pretext or the other," said the trainee, who had joined in March and has not received any salary ever since.

“When we were selected, we were told that the initial one month was for general training after which the company would train us for 15 days under process training. Though we did not get anything in writing, the management verbally assured us that at the end of the process training, our jobs would be regularised and we would also be given salaries,” he asserted.

The protesters alleged that the company management did not honour its commitment. "They first told us that the process training period had been increased to 30 days and that no salary would be given for the training period," the trainees said, adding that the 30-day training period was to get over this month-end, but they were told by trainers that the management had decided to extend the process training period to two months citing unsatisfactory performance.

The traines also alleged that they were asked to pay between Rs 1,200 and Rs 2,200 in the name of process training. Some of them maintained that though they had been offered joining letters on June 15, they had not been allowed to join office yet.

“The company has told us that we can apply for a refund but let us see what they actually do to our money and dues,” said a trainee.

Repeated attempts to talk to the authorities at Aegis Aspire proved futile. The police had not registered a case in this regard till the time of filing this report.

Chandigarh, June 25
The Technical Education Department, Haryana, has taken a number of steps to deal effectively with the menace of ragging in all technical institutions in the state.

While stating this here today, a spokesman of the department said instructions had been published by the department in all admission brochures of all programmes that ragging in educational institutions was banned and anyone indulging in ragging was likely to be punished appropriately, which may include suspension from the institution or classes for a limited period or fine with the public apology.

The punishment might also take the shape of withholding scholarships or other benefits, debarring from representation in events, withholding results, suspension or expulsion from hostel or mess and the like. If the individuals committing or abetting ragging are not identified, collective punishment could be awarded to act as a deterrent, he added.

He said the instructions and requisite performa received from the AICTE had been sent to all technical institutes in the ambit of the Technical Education Department for monitoring the directions of supreme court on measures against ragging in technical educational institutions.

All technical institutes had been directed to mention in their prospectus the total number of "ragging Incidents" taken place in their institutions in each year for information to the public.

Faridabad, June 25
The issues raised by former Haryana home minister and now chief of a faction of the HJC (BL), Subhash Batra, questioning the credentials of ex-chief minister Bhajan Lal as the leader of non-Jats, especially Punjabis, found an echo in the utterances by Labour Minister AC Chaudhary.

The minister, who represents the NIT assembly constituency from this district, asserted not only Bhajan Lal but leaders of other parties have never espoused the interests of the Punjabis. He added he was yet to come upon any political leader who would give the Punjabis their “due” by virtue of their numerical strength in the area.

He concurred with Batra's charge that Bhajan Lal had “ignored the seniority” of non-Jat MLAs, especially those are Punjabi, in the Congress party as well as for appointing his son Chander Mohan (now Chand Mohammad) as the deputy CM after the last assembly polls.

In a public statement made a few days ago, Batra had noted wryly had Bhajan Lal been really been in favour of the non-Jats and Punjabis he should have rooted for either AC Chaudhary and Mange Ram Gupta (both of whom are incumbent state ministers) for the post of deputy CM.

Batra's supporters allege he was suspended from the HJC(BL) for pushing for “democratic norms” in the party. Besides, they assert, he was also instrumental in providing party tickets to Punjabis in three parliamentary constituencies in the state in the last month’s general elections.

After his supporters made him ‘interim president’ of a faction of the HJC(BL), he has launched a crusade for political empowerment of the Punjabis residing in the state.

When asked about Batra's allegations, Chaudhary said “it would have been better if he (Bhajan Lal) had kept an open mind before proposing the name of his own son for the deputy CM’s post”.

Sirsa, June 25
Cotton farmers battling the mealy bug on their crops during the past few seasons have good news this year.

They will find “warriors” standing with them in their fight against the bug that has been damaging cotton grown from Bt cotton seed.

A parasite named aenasius has been detected by scientists of the Cotton Research Centre, Sirsa, and a team of the Entomology Department of Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University that surveyed several cotton fields in the district.

“Aenasius is a farmer-friendly insect that destroys the mealy bug, which is

fatal for the cotton crop. We call it biological control in scientific parlance,” said Pradeep Meel, Deputy Director, Agriculture, Sirsa.

"The mealy bug is a small insect that damages the crop by sucking its juice from petals, stems and small, green branches. It plays havoc with the cotton crop,” he said.

The agriculture scientists claim that the aenasius parasite has already destroyed 70 to 80 per cent of the mealy bugs in the district.

The scientists said studies had shown that the mealy bug died and turned into a red- grey coloured mass within seven days after the attack of aenasius. Such a mass could easily be identified on the plants.

It had been observed that the aenasius parasite was also active in fields where the mealy bug existed.

The scientists have urged the farmers to protect and preserve this farmer-friendly parasite.

They should postpone the spray of pesticides by a few days if they notice the presence of aenasius on the plants of cotton, the scientists say.

Fatehabad, June 25
The police today solved the mystery behind the murder of a farmer, who was found dead in his fields in Ladhuwas village here on June 23.

The police said victim Bhajan Singh’s wife, Binder Kaur, her paramour Ranjit Singh and an accomplice Channi Singh have been booked for the murder. Illicit relations of the victim’s wife have been cited as the reason behind the murder. The accused would be arrested soon, said a police spokesman.

Ranjit Singh used to work as a servant in the fields of Bhajan Singh. However, Bhajan Singh removed him in 2007 after he suspected illicit relations between him and Binder Kaur, said the police.

Binder Kaur’s relations with Ranjit Singh continued even after that.

The police said Binder Kaur and Ranjit Singh hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Bhajan Singh. Ranjit Singh got sleeping pills for Binder Kaur, who mixed 10 of those in the food of her husband on June 23. Bhajan Singh went to the fields that night but soon went to sleep.

Ranjit Singh allegedly came to the fields with an accomplice, Channi, and the duo murdered him with a sword. Later, they threw the sword in a well near the fields and went home.

Faridabad, June 25
A businessman was allegedly murdered in his factory in Sector 22 here last night. The body was found this morning.

The deceased has been identified as Tejinder Katyal, a resident of Jawahar Colony. He used to run a fabrication business.

According to the complaint lodged with the police, two persons came to meet Katyal in his factory last night. As they arrived, the foreman of the factory left for Sector 21 for some work.

However, when he returned, he found that the factory was locked. He left for home under the impression that his employer had closed for the day. The family got suspicious when Tejinder did not return in the night.

The brother of the deceased went to the factory site today morning and found his brother murdered. The duo allegedly murdered Tejinder and locked the factory gate.

The police has registered a case, but is still clueless regarding the accused.