Chandigarh, February 5
The Haryana Government today shifted KL Manhas from the post of Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), 22 days after an FIR under Sections 419, 420, 468, 469 and 471 (impersonation and forgery) of the IPC was registered against him on January 14 (reported in The Tribune of January 16).

Dr Parvez Ahmed, who was Additional PCCF and was today promoted as PCCF, took over as head of the Forest Department. Manhas has been posted as MD, Haryana Forest Development Corporation. The Tribune had reported on December 31 last how the INLD government had exonerated Manhas of the charge of molesting a woman clerk even after the Vigilance Bureau had indicted him. However, the government promoted Manhas and posted him as PCCF.

Sources in the government say that the decision to shift Manhas was taken because the government felt that it was inappropriate for a person facing a criminal case to head a department. After the registration of a criminal case, Manhas moved the court of Additional Sessions Judge, Panchkula, Sanjeev Jindal, for anticipatory bail. The case against Manhas was registered on the complaint of Indian Forest Officer Vinod Kumar Jhajhria, who was recommended for Indira Priyadarshni Vriksha Mitra Award, 2007. Jhajhria alleged that he was denied the award after Manhas made a false complaint against him to the Union Forest Ministry by posing as one RS Mehta, resident of 651, Sector 6, Panchkula, the official residence of Manhas.

After a private handwriting expert Jassi Anand opined that the handwriting on the complaint (purported to be written by Mehta) and that of Manhas tallied, Jhajhria lodged the complaint with the Panchkula police. The police sent the complaint and specimen signatures of Manhas, obtained from the Forest Department, to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Madhuban, an official agency. The FSL endorsed the opinion of the private handwriting expert. The police lodged the FIR against Manhas.

Granting anticipatory bail to Manhas, while mentioning the report of Jassi Anand, the court remained mum on the report of the FSL, on the basis of which the police had registered the case. The judge directed Manhas to join investigations and give his specimen handwriting and signatures as and when required by the investigating officer.

Meanwhile, Manhas removed Rajinder Singh Panghal from the position of State Public Information Officer on February 1. Panghal had given specimen signatures of Manhas to the police when the latter sought these in August 2009, for examination.The following day, Manhas sought an explanation from Panghal and three others as to why his (Manhas’s) specimen handwriting was given to the police without the permission of the then PCCF.

Sirsa, February 5
The INLD and several other organisations held a demonstration against rising prices and fall in the law and order situation at Sirsa, Dabwali, Ellenabad, Kalanwali and Rania in the district today.

Party secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala led the demonstration in Sirsa town, while his brother MLA Abhey Singh spearheaded the protests at Ellenabad.

MLAs Krishan Kamboj and Charanjit Singh led demonstrations at Rania and Kalanwali and former MLA Sita Ram in Dabwali.

“The prices of items of daily use have been soaring, but the central and the state governments have been shifting the onus on each other instead of trying to mitigate the miseries of the common people,” alleged Ajay Singh while addressing protesters in Sirsa.

Memoranda addressed to the Governor were presented to the authorities in each of the five towns. Workers of the PWD held a demonstration in front of their office. They alleged that neither pay arrears were being paid to them, nor demands like revival of LTC and ex-gratia employment were being met.

The Labourers’ Union of the local grain market blocked the national highway for over an hour against the arrest of three of their members in a theft case.

They said their members had been arrested following an FIR lodged by a trader 10 days back and while the “real culprits” were roaming free, their innocent colleagues had been arrested.

The Haryana PWD Mechanical Workers Union held a demonstration in front of the office of the Superintending Engineer (SE) against the move to hand over the functioning of the waterworks to panchayats.

The demonstrators gave a memorandum addressed to minister Randeep Surjewala to the SE.The Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti of Chaudhary Devi Lal University here held a protest against lack of amenities in the hostel and delay in refund of hostel security.

Fatehabad: The INLD organised protests against rising prices at Fatehabad, Ratia and Tohana.

Swatantar Bala Chaudhary, former MLA, led the demonstration at Fatehabad, while INLD MLA Gian Chand Odh and former MLA Nishan Singh led protests at Ratia and Tohana, respectively.

KURUKSHETRA: Activists of the Indian National Lok Dal led by state president Ashok Arora took out a procession in protest against price rise, corruption, unemployment and black marketing of LPG here on Friday. Arora alleged that the state government had failed to control the price rise.

The Congress government before coming to power had promised to abolish VAT. However, after coming to power, the state government had made a mockery of public by putting an extra financial burden of Rs 500 crore on people of Haryana.

The cost of eatables had jumped to 100-150 per cent and the pulses were being sold at the rate of Rs 100 per kg and wheat Rs 20 per kg, he added.The traffic on the flyover remained jammed for about half an hour. A memorandum was submitted to Sub-divisional Magistrate Ashok Bansal addressed to the Haryana Governor seeking his intervention.

SONEPAT: INLD activists led by district president Padam Singh Dahiya, state president of party’s intellectual cell Brig OP Chaudhary and state spokesman Surender Singh Dahiya on Friday took out a protest march against the rising prices of essential commodities and handed over a memorandum to District Development and Panchayat Officer Dharambir. In the memorandum, the Governor has been urged to issue directions to the state government for taking necessary steps to bring down the prices of essential commodities.

FARIDABAD: The local unit of the INLD on Friday took out a procession in Ballabgarh city in protest against the price rise and the alleged failure of the state government. The INLD workers submitted a memorandum to the Governor vide the office of the Tehsildar. The INLD alleged that whenever the Congress came to power, prices of essential commodities increased.

REWARI: INLD activists led by their state vice-president Rao Ajit Singh staged a demonstration in protest against the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and the “deteriorating” law and order situation at the district secretariat here on Friday.

Raising slogans against the government, Ajit Singh alleged that the Chief Minister, who was indifferent towards the hardships being faced by the masses, was engrossed in activities merely to save his government from an “impending” collapse.

Chandigarh, February 5
LPG dealers of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation limited (HPCL) in Punjab and Haryana have called off their proposed strike from tomorrow following a meeting between the All-India LPG Distributors Federation (North-Western Region) and the coordinator (oil industry) here today.

While Rajesh Sharma, Deputy GM, IOCL; Jagdeep K Ranna, Chief Area Manager, Chandigarh Area Office IOCL; S.K. Gupta, Senior Regional Manager, HPCL; Rajiv Sharma, Territory Manger, BPCL; and Ugaesh Panday, Manager, BPCL, represented the oil industry, the federation was represented by Capt KJS Buttar, its president, along with the executive committee members from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

Buttar said the backlog of LPG refills in the winter season was mainly due to the short supply by oil companies, particularly HPCL, as these companies could not properly assess the demand for domestic refills and curb multifarious uses by domestic consumers. He alleged that some of the oil companies were “consciously” supplying lower quantities of domestic LPG to its distributors. This had created tremendous pressure on the distributors, who had had to face the anger of the consumers. The federation also told the coordinator that it was the third year in a row when the HPCL had had a backlog of several days in the region.

Representative of HPCL said the backlog with the HPCL distributors would be liquidated within 10 days, following which the distributors decided not to go on strike.

Meham, February 5
The gotra row at Kheri Meham village has turned worse with the khap panchayat of Berwals and Beniwals, which met here today, ordering the expulsion of Kavita, wife of Satish Berwal, from the village.

It announced that the couple was free to live together anywhere except Kheri Meham.

“The family may live in the village but without Kavita,” the panchayat announced. Satish said he would live with wife and their infant son outside the village till the issue was resolved.

The congregation demanded withdrawal of cases against several residents of the village on a complaint by Kavita.

At least 250 persons from Berwal and Beniwal gotra from various parts of the state assembled at a private banquet hall here this noon to discuss the issue.

It was headed by one Pratap Singh. The congregation formed two committees to discuss the matter in detail.

A member of the panchayat later addressed mediapersons and informed them of the decisions.

None from the families of Satish and Kavita was present at the panchayat deliberations. The panchayat later visited the house of Satish and told his family about the decisions.

The panchayat made clear that if the couple returned to the village, the khap would be forced to take further measures.

It apologised to the family for insulting Azad Singh, father of Satish, at an earlier meeting, forcing a shoe into his mouth. The khap had declared that since the couple hailed from Berwal and Beniwal gotra they could not marry as they shared bhaichara.

Kavita, on whose application the police had registered a case against the members of the Beniwal khap for annuling her marriage, could not be contacted for comment.

Meanwhile, the police security at Satish’s house remains.

New Delhi, February 5
The 135-km Western Peripheral Expressway between Kundli and Palwal that will connect national highways 1, 2, 8 and 10 will be completed by the end of the year, the Supreme Court was informed today.

About 32 per cent construction of the project, aimed at reducing traffic and pollution in Delhi, had been completed till the end of November last year, the court-appointed monitoring committee said in a status report to a Bench headed by Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan.

Earlier, the project being implemented by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and others was expected to be completed by July last year. The Corporation had spent Rs 764 crore till November last year on acquisition of land for the expressway, toll plazas, relocation of utilities and diversion of forest land.

The Bench, meanwhile, directed the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary and the secretary in the Union Surface Transport Ministry to hold a meeting to resolve the problems in the construction of the 105-km Eastern Peripheral Expressway from Kundli to Faridabad via Ghaziabad and Noida, connecting the NH 2 and NH 24.

Gurgaon:Haryana Minister for PWD (B&R) and Information Technology Randeep Singh Surjewala has said the state will get Rs 9,550 crore from the Centre for widening and strengthening of roads. Of this, projects amounting to Rs 4,130 crore have been approved while proposals for projects costing Rs 5,420 crore have been approved in principle.

Addressing a press conference here, Surjewala said two six-laned overbridges were proposed on the NH-1, one near Rasoi near Panipat and the other at the Bahalgarh crossing near Sonepat.

Chandigarh, February 5
Lt-Gen DS Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor of Guru Jambheshwar University, Hisar, will take over as the Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra.

After the completion of the tenure of Dr RP Bhardwaj as Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University a few months ago, General Sandhu had been holding the additional charge of Kurukshetra University.

Chandigarh, February 5
Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Jasbir Singh has issued a notice of motion for March 22 to Haryana Chief Secretary-cum-HUDA vice-chairperson and others on a petition by Hisar-based Ex-Naval Servicemen Welfare Society.

They had dubbed as discriminatory the authority’s decision linking the rank with the plot size. The petitioners had asserted that the junior commissioned officers and other ranks were not allowed to apply for plots of bigger size.

Panipat, February 5
In a step to check the increasing pollution levels in this industrial city, the Haryana State Pollution Control Board has initiated a sealing drive to close down units which have failed to comply with the provisions of the Water Act of 1974.

The board had recently served notices on several industrial units of which several failed to reply. Following this the board today started the sealing drive. A team of the board, lead by SDO Satinder Singh, had yesterday descended on 10 units, which were sealed. While nine others were sealed today. The sealing drive was on till the filing of this report.

The SDO said besides the dyeing unit of Paliwal Exports, the board had initiated sealing process against Hand Fab, Award Velvet, Amba Matching, Ambika Textiles, Anuj Handloom, Bansi Dye House, Dev Dye House, Beena Handloom, Harmilap Textiles, Harsh Dye House, Rohit Dye House, Rakesh Dye House, Sonu Dye House, Vardhman Dye, Kohinoor Handloom and Shri Ganga Handloom. All these units had been sealed yesterday.

He said the board had served notices on these units, but they failed to reply. Following this, chairman of the board AS Chahal had ordered the sealing of these.

During the drive, the team of board officials placed seals on all machinery installed on the premises of these units in the presence of their owners or representatives. The action had been initiated against these units for violating the Water Act, the official said.

The board had recently ordered sealing of these units besides disconnection of the electricity connections with immediate affect.

Meanwhile, the Dyeing House Association today held a meeting in which it was decided to submit a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in protest against the sealing drive.

Karnal, February 5
A one-day awareness programme on “Save the Mother Earth” was organised at National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) here today.

Experts laid stress on the need to create awareness about environment, ecology and conservation of natural sources.

Sumita Das Gupta, coordinator, Natural Resource Management unit at the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), exhorted people to revert to traditional practices that helped natural resources like water, air, energy, forests and earth.

Expressing concern over the tendency to blindly follow and adopt modern techniques and practices to preserve environment and ecology, she said the manner in which tribal communities protected their environment was a living example for all of us to emulate.

She said on the one had India was fighting economic poverty but on the other hand “eco poverty” had taken over the country due to over-exploitation of resources in the name of development.

Calling for a shift from conventional energy sources, eco-friendly and renewable alternate sources like wind, solar and other sources of energy, she cautioned against following the West.

Pointing out that “eco poverty” was resulting in ecological imbalances, she said it was a matter of great concern that even the tribals were being persuaded to abandon the old practices, threatening their livelihood.

Identifying a sharp fall in ground water table as another area of concern, she pointed out that two-thirds of the county’s ground water was in water-scarcity zone while 80 per cent of the farm lands were dependent on ground water and 40 per cent on natural sources of water like rainfall. However, the only silver lining was that in spite of this green cover had increased, she added.

Inaugurating the awareness programme, organised jointly by the Indian Council of Social Welfare (Haryana branch) and the Haryana State Council of Child Welfare, Asha Hooda, vice-president, State Council of Child, urged the people, especially the students, to adopt the traditional practices for keeping air and water pollution free and protecting the ecology.

Sumita Singh and Zile Ram also urged the people to adopt environment-friendly living to preserve the natural resources and keep them free from pollution. An exhibition and painting competition on environment as theme was also organised by school and college students.

Chandigarh, February 5
Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia honoured 30 officers and officials of the state police for rendering their outstanding performance at a state-level function held at Raj Bhawan here today.

Eight IPS officers, two HPS officers and 20 other policemen were given the Police Medal. Additional Superintendent of Police Arun Singh Nehra and Assistant Sub-Inspector Narinder Singh (posthumous) were given the Police Medal for gallantry. The medal of Narinder Singh was received by his widow Anil Devi.

Former MD, Police Housing Corporation, CP Bansal; ADGP Sriniwas Vashisht; Inspector Surinder Kumar and Sub-Inspector Lekh Raj were honoured with the President’s Police Medal for rendering excellent services.

ADGP Parminder Rai, IGP, Training and Research Institute, Bhondsi, Sheel Madhur; DIGs Rajbir Singh Deswal; OP Singh, Ajay Singal and Alok Mittal and Additional Superintendents of Police Arun Singh and Rattan Singh were honoured with the Police Medals for meritorious services.

Jai Narian, Harpal Singh, Jaipal and Mohinder Singh, all Inspectors; Indrawati, Ranbir Singh, Ravinder Singh, Bhim Sain, Kailash Chander, Rajkumar, Lakhwinder Kumar and Nirmal Singh, all Sub-Inspectors; and Kulwant Singh, Pramod Chand, Ramkumar and Vinod Kumar, all Assistant Sub-Inspectors; were also given the President’s Police Medals.