Panipat, December 10
The state government’s decision to privatise the distribution systems of electricity in Gurgaon and Panipat has evoked resentment among the rank and cadre of the Haryana Power Engineers Association (HPEA).

They have demanded that the decision be scrapped immediately.

In a statement here today, general secretary of the association Sumer Singh Yadav said the government was privatising the distribution system only in the urban area, even as there was no such provision in the Electricity Act of 2003.

Contradicting the claims being made by the government that the aim of privatising the distribution system was to bring down the transmission losses, the general secretary said the “statement of objectives and reasons” of the Electricity Act envisaged the franchise system only in rural areas.

He said high-revenue cities were being given on distribution franchise to private parties, which was not right.

He said the statement issued by the government that privatisation of the distribution system would bring in efficiency in the private sector management without losing the ownership of assets was not based on facts.

He said companies that would come forward to manage the distribution system would be working with the sole aim of making profit and this could prove detrimental to the interests of consumers.

The private companies would get all assets of the power utility without investing anything and would garner only profits, Yadav said.

The general secretary said there was no law and order problem in collection of revenue in Panipat and Gurgaon, which were the highest revenue-generating centres for the power utility.

He said through the privatisation of the distribution system, employees of the power utility would become employees of the private company.

He said power engineers and workers of Haryana would hold a joint meeting on Saturday to discuss the issue and press up on the government to scrap the move.

Gurgaon, December 10
The Haryana government has enacted bylaws for the installation of communication towers in the municipal corporation areas of the state.

As per the new bylaws, the property owner on whose premises the tower is to be installed will have to obtain a licence from the competent authority.

Disclosing this here today, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner Rajender Kumar Kataria said according to the bylaws, the maximum height of a communication tower from the ground level should not exceed 30 metres, subject to clearance from the defence, civil aviation and doordarshan authorities.

The location of the communication towers shall be governed by radio frequency system adopted by the application and shall be allowed subject to some conditions.

The first condition is that the communication towers shall be installed only in the commercial or other public areas. Where it is not possible to install the communication tower in commercial or other public areas, a possibility shall be explored to install them in park or green belt within residential areas, open spaces or community buildings.

“In case it is not possible to find such suitable spaces on the said sites, then such towers can be permitted on the rooftops of the residential buildings, subject to the condition of structural safety certificate issued by a designated institute,” he said.

The DC said the licence granted by the competent authority for the erection of a communication tower would be valid for a period of one year, after which the applicant would have to get it renewed on an annual basis.

The applicant will have to submit one-time non-refundable licence fee of Rs 2.5 lakh in the hyper potential zone and if the site is shared, an additional fee of Rs 1.25 lakh per share will be charged.

A fee of Rs 2 lakh will be charged in the high potential zone and an additional fee of Rs 1 lakh per sharing if the site is shared. An annual renewal fee at the rate of 10 per cent of the licence fee per communication tower shall be payable by the applicant.

Meanwhile, Gurgaon DC Rajender Kumar Kataria, who has been appointed the nodal officer on behalf of the state government for reviewing the tourism activities in the NCR part of Haryana in view of the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, said a single-window service would soon be started in Gurgaon for the convenience of hoteliers in obtaining various licences.

Chandigarh, December 10
The Haryana Congress yesterday hailed the judgment of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, quashing the acquisition of 36 acres spread over three villages in Gurgaon district initiated by the Chautala government in 2002.

In a statement here yesterday, Congress spokesperson Ved Prakash Vidrohi said the judgement had proved his party’s contention that the acquisition during the INLD regime was mostly motivated.

A Division Bench comprising Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Gurdev Singh recently quashed the acquisition proceedings in respect of 36 acres and ordered that the land be returned to its owners.

The judgment, he said, proved that the Chautala government indulged in corrupt practices while acquiring land. This was why the INLD to hide its own misdoings, had been hurling false allegations at the Congress government.

He said the court had observed that the Chautala government benefited certain colonisers by releasing land after invoking Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act.

Vidrohi appealed to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda that, if legally possible, a criminal case be filed against Chautala for misuse of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act.

Rohtak, December 10
The government has decided to computerise all civic bodies to streamline their working and check alleged irregularities. This was announced by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while redressing public grievances at a rest house here this morning.

The Chief Minister said his government was committed to weeding out corruption. He said details of all works and projects would be made available online and it would be easier for people to access information and track the progress regarding particular cases.

He said computerisation work would begin from civic bodies, including municipal committees, councils and corporations, so that development works got more attention and the common issues of residents were attended to immediately.

He said any person who felt disappointed with the progress regarding any project or scheme could take up the matter with the higher authorities. He said the civic bodies had been directed to take up the computerisation work of the house tax record in all cities and all the officials have been asked to put the record.

He said computers would be provided in all offices and would be linked with the Internet facility soon. The Chief Minister said the government had also taken up the work of making jails online.

Chandigarh, December 10
Haryana has set the wheels rolling for better roads and highways.The government has a roadmap on the drawing board and is pushing the Centre hard for funds.

In its previous term, the government had got Rs 1,066 crore projects completed. The state government could not get any funds from the Centre between 1996 and 2005.

Among the new projects that have come to Haryana are approval to four to six laning of National Highway NH-71 A from Panipat to Rohtak which will cost Rs 600 crore.

While bids for the same have been received, it would be awarded before the year ends. Similarly, bids have been received for the Rs 641 crore project on Rohtak-Bawal NH-71 which will take on the traffic coming from adjoining Uttar Pradesh.

“We have limited funds which is why we rely heavily for support on the Centre. “I am personally pursing for these with the Ministry of Surface Transport which is considering our proposals favourably.

It is sad that 10 years before the Congress rule in 2005, Haryana got nothing for its highways. We, on the other hand, have identified bottlenecks across the state and prepared proposals to be placed before the Centre for funding,” PWD Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

While Rs 1250 cr worth projects had been given the go-ahead, the PWD (B and R) had moved a proposal for eight more projects of which the most ambitious, the Eastern Peripheral Expressway, would start from Rajiv Gandhi Education City and connect Haryana to Noida, bypassing Delhi.

This project alone would cost Rs 700 cr within Haryana and require land acquisition.Among the other projects which had been moved by the department are four-to six laning of Rohtak-Hisar NH-10 at Rs 540 cr, which would take the pressure off Delhi as also the six-laning of the Delhi-Palwal-Agra NH-2.

While the Centre had shelved the proposal for four-laning of the Jinda-Rohtak NH-71 following a study which did not render it feasible, the four-laning of Ambala -Kaithal (NH-65) for Rs 900 cr was likely to come through shortly.

The four-laning of NH-73 (Panchkula-Saha-Yamunanagar) was also under consideration.

Gurgaon, December 10
It took the district authorities the life of a five-year-old girl to get a sewerage manhole covered. The girl identified as Shikha, who had come to visit the Sheetla Mata temple in old Gurgaon with her family, fell down into the sewer soon after she got down from the car.

Shikha's body was today found lying in an open sewer by a teastall owner, who informed the police. The SHO of Sector 5 police station, Tulsi Ram, said a case under Section 304 of the IPC for causing death due to negligence had been registered against HUDA junior engineer VK Sharma on the complaint of the girl's father.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon. Shikha's father Samuj Kumar, who had come to pay obeisance at the temple with his wife, two children and other family members, parked his car near the temple. As soon as the family got down from the car, they noticed that their daughter Shikha was missing.

An extensive search operation was carried out for the next two days by the officials from the Fire Department, HUDA and the Municipal Corporation, but the girl could not be found. A missing report was lodged on Sunday evening.

The girl's parents were even told by the police officials that the girl had not fallen into the sewer, but they had probably "forgotten" her somewhere on the way to the temple from Delhi.

However, the bloated body of the girl was spotted by a tea-stall owner in an open manhole in Palam Vihar, 5 km from the spot where the girl had gone missing.

The family was called to identify the body. The postmortem report confirmed the death due to drowning. 

Faridabad, December 10
The father of a groom, Shobraj of Ballabgarh, was killed and three more of a wedding party injured when their car collided head on with a trailer near the Magpie Tourist Complex on the Delhi-Mathura highway last night

The marriage ceremony was to take place at the tourist complex.

The accident occurred as the car driver took a u-turn to enter the complex.

The condition of the injured was stated to be critical.

SONEPAT: The police nabbed a gangster identified as Dharambir of Nangal Kalan village on Wednesday night and seized a stolen tractor valued at Rs 5 lakh.

He was on his way to Uttar Pradesh to sell it. His two accomplices escaped.

SP MS Sheoran said the three had stolen the tractor from Tazpur village in Delhi about a week back and a case was registered in this regard at the Alipur police station.

Sonepat, December 10
National general secretary of the All-India Human Rights Samiti OP Garg today said education, health and employment were the main rights and it was the duty of the government as well as society to provide and safeguard these.

He said this while addressing a seminar organised here by the Sri Aggarsein Seva Mandal on the occasion of World Human Rights Day.

A number of persons attended the seminar. Garg said the progress of an individual as well as of society was not possible without the protection of human rights.

Violation of human rights must be condemned, he added. President of the mandal LC Jindal said persons conscious of their rights must remain aware about their duties also. 

Rohtak, December 10
The recruitment of jawans will soon go online and all applicants need to get conversant with using a computer. This was stated by Brig JS Soin, Deputy Director (Recruitment) of the Army, while interacting with mediapersons regarding the ongoing “recruitment fair” here recently.

The week-long recruitment drive started on December 5.

He said the recruitment process would undergo a major change as online tests were likely to be introduced from 2011. Computers would be installed in offices where applicants will be asked to appear in the written test after they clear all formalities, including the physical and psychological tests.

Chandigarh, December 10
The government has issued transfer and posting orders of five HCS officers with immediate effect.

Girish Arora has been posted as Secretary RTA, Kurukshetra and Karnal, Vikram Singh Malik has been posted as Secretary RTA, Sirsa and Faridabad, while Munish Nagpal has been posted as sub-divisional officer (civil), Ellenabad.

Manjeet Singh will be City Magistrate, Karnal, while Virender Kumar Dahiya, awaiting posting orders, has been appointed as secretary, Haryana Agricultural Marketing Board, against a vacant post.