Chandigarh, March 15
The Haryana Finance Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, had to delay his reply to the debate on the Budget for about an hour following Opposition-induced two adjournments of the House.

The moment Speaker HS Chatha called Yadav to give his reply, INLD members moved into the well of the House, demanding more time for discussion. They were soon joined by BJP members.

Chatha told them that the Budget had been debated upon for four days. There had been occasions in the Assembly when Budgets were passed just in one hour or in one day. As the Opposition refused to listen to his arguments, he adjourned the House for 15 minutes. When the House reassembled, Chatha again adjourned it for 10 minutes and called representatives of the Opposition to his chamber.

Chatha, who was adamant that he would not allow any more discussion, relented and allowed two INLD members, Pradeep Chaudhary and Bishan Singh Saini, and Kavita Jain of the BJP to speak for five minutes each. In his spirited reply, Yadav replied to the Opposition criticism point by point. Opening the attack on Leader of Opposition Om Prakash Chautala, Yadav said the INLD leader’s speech was less on the Budget and more like a property dealer, who had missed a deal.

Further cornering the Chautalas, Yadav told the House how land was given for “Orbit Resorts” in Gurgaon to the family of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal when the INLD was in power. He said the land was allotted without inviting applications.

Interrupting him, Chautala said the Badals had won the case in the Supreme Court. Yadav immediately retorted that this was because the INLD government had colluded with the Badals in the apex court.

He reminded Leader of the BJP legislature party Anil Vij that Haryana was not alone in raising VAT from 4 per cent to 5 per cent. Even the BJP-ruled Himachal had recently done so. He denied the Opposition allegation that the Congress had promised to abolish VAT in its election manifesto. Quoting from the manifesto, he said his party had said it would not be imposed in isolation of the other states. The Congress government had rather reduced the rate of VAT on many items, while many others were exempted.

Defending the surcharge on VAT, Yadav said in Punjab it was 10 per cent.

Continuing his attack on Chautala, he said during the INLD regime many employees were retrenched and new recruitment was banned. The notification for acquisition of land for special economic zones (SEZ) was issued by that government. He said the INLD even wanted to set up casinos, which violated the age-old traditions and ethos of the state.

Later, the House passed demands for various departments after rejecting the cut motions moved by Ram Pal Majra, among others, on demands relating to the Irrigation, Health and Education departments. 

Chandigarh, March 15
A second breach of privilege motion was moved in the Haryana Assembly here today against INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala for “misleading” the House during his Budget speech.

Moved by Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra, a first-timer, the motion was brought in against Chautala for making a “false, misleading and incorrect” statement that the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) had not acquired a single acre since after the Congress government came to power in 2005. The contention was made by Chautala while participating in the discussion on the Budget.

Chautala had, Batra alleged, also stated that not even a single sector of HUDA had been floated during this period. While Chautala was making his speech, this claim was contested by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala who had countered the same by “giving a factual position”. Batra alleged that despite this, Chautala stuck to his stand and went on to add that in failing to carve out new sectors, the government had failed in its responsibility of providing cheap and reasonable houses to the poor.

Unlike the first breach of privilege moved by the Congress, which was admitted amid complete pandemonium without Congress MLA Kuldeep Sharma being able to make his point, today’s motion seemed a more organised affair as Batra, undeterred by the INLD protests and the goings-on in the House, continued to read out the contents of the privilege motion.

The Congress, on March 12, had indicated that more such motions of breach of privilege could be brought in against Chautala if his contentions in the speech during discussion on the Budget were found incorrect. The Congress had claimed that the party was verifying his statements.

Batra pointed out that 13 awards for floating plots in various sectors were announced after the Congress government took over in 2005 and that as many as 29,471 plots were floated in various sectors since then. He gave details of the awards for floating plots and all plots floated by the government.

The motion was adopted by the House by voice vote even as the Opposition members of the INLD and its ally, the Shiromani Akali Dal’s lone MLA, staged a walkout. The matter was referred to the Committee of Privileges, which will submit its report on the first sitting of the next session.

Earlier, question hour was dominated by the ailing health sector in the state with a number of members maintaining that facilities in government hospitals and health centres were inadequate. BJP MLA Anil Vij said the hospital in Ambala Cantt had no facilities worth its name and the situation of the hospital and patients there was pitiable. “Though we are in 2010, standing in the hospital you can get transported back to 1857 when the British first established the cantonment,” he claimed.

The House paid tributes to former MLA Chaudhary Abdur Razzaque and freedom fighter Mool Chand Verma. 

Sirsa, March 15
The Haryana Roadways buses remained off the road for over two hours in the afternoon today due to chakka jam, the call for which had been given by the Haryana Roadways Joint Action Committee (HRJAC).

Striking workers of the Haryana Roadways did not allowed buses to come out of the depot and sat on a dharna on its main gate.

“The state government was bent upon privatising the Haryana Roadways and was in the process of issuing 2,700 bus permits to influential persons,” alleged Ram 
Swaroop Jhorar, president of the local unit of the roadways’ committee.

He said the roadways’ employees from all over the state would participate in a dharna in Chandigarh against the policy of privatisation.

Roadways’ workers also decried the action initiated by the state Transport Commissioner against employees, who participated in gherao of the state Assembly on March 9 and threatened to go on strike if the action was not taken back.

Fatehabad: Roadways buses did not ply on roads between 12 noon to 2 pm due to the strike of the Haryana Roadways Joint Action Committee.

The roadways’ workers assembled outside the gate of the depot and raised slogans against the state government’s policy of privatisation.

The workers also criticised the government for allegedly giving step-motherly treatment to roadways workers in the matter of implementation of the Sixth Pay Panel recommendations. 

Sirsa, March 15
The shooting incident took a new turn today after it was revealed that Krishan Kumar, a private security guard, who sustained a bullet injury on Saturday, was not shot by anyone but his injury was “self-inflicted”.

Though the youth, who is now said to be out of danger at a private hospital in Hisar, said in his statement to the police that he got hurt as his revolver went off accidentally, the police investigation revealed that the youth shot himself after his girlfriend, who had been insisting on marrying him, provoked him to do so.

SP Satinder Kumar Gupta, while confirming Krishan Kumar’s statement, said the interrogation of the girl, a polytechnic student, detained by the police yesterday, revealed that Kumar shot himself when the girl, who stayed with him for the night, asked him to prove his love for her by shooting himself.

Kumar is married and has two children and as per the initial statement of his kin, he came to Sirsa a few days before the incident by claiming that he had got a job as security guard in Tara Baba Kutiya managed by the family of Haryana minister Gopal Kanda.

However, the police said the youth was not working in the Kutiya. Kanda’s younger brother Gobind Kanda had already denied any kind of association of the youth with the Kutiya the day he was injured.

“The police will look into the various aspects of the investigation before reaching to any conclusion as to who, if any, were criminally liable for the incident,” the SP added

Rohtak, March 15
At least 25 per cent of the total population of India is suffering from obesity and it is a cause of concern as the disease is on the way to become the most common disorder.

This was revealed by Dr Rohit Seth, a research scientist at Florida State University, USA, while speaking at a special lecture on “Neurobiology of Obesity and Leptin Resistance” at Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences here today.

He claimed that the disease had been spreading at an alarming rate. “In the present world of mechanical life, improper food habits and sedentary lifestyle has made us lazy and this has resulted in accumulation of fats in our body,” said Dr Seth.

He said decrease in average physical activities such as exercise and walking coupled with inclusion of fatty foods in diets in an uncontrolled manner had been the main cause of obesity.

He said a hormone identified as leptin regulate the fat level in the body and its imbalance produced more fat. “This hormone is regulated by leptin gene whose irregularity signals the brain for hunger again and again as a result one tends to eat more than what is required by the body actually. An obese person may suffer from obesity-related diseases like diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis and cancer.

Dr Seth said there were several drugs and various other methods for weight loss offered by various drug manufacturers and weight loss centres in the market but the genuineness of their efficacy had not been proved so far.

A new therapy had been developed in which with the help of infusion of leptin and amylin, obesity could be considerably controlled or cured.

Karnal, March 15
As many as 341 students were awarded degrees during the convocation of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) at the Karnal regional centre here today.

Lok Sabha member Arvind Sharma, who presided over the function, lauded the role of IGNOU in the promotion of higher education through distance education and providing opportunities to those who did not have access to formal education and the dropouts. IGNOU was not only imparting education but also enabling in-service people to continue education and improve their qualifications, he added.

When his attention was drawn to the circular of the Haryana Education Department, barring the government and aided colleges from providing their staff and premises to IGNOU for running its centres, Arvind Sharma said he would take up the matter with the Chief Minister, the Education Minister and the officers concerned and make all possible efforts to sort out the issue.

Kurukshetra, March 15
Lakhs of pilgrims took a holy dip in the Saraswati Teerath during the three-day Chait Chaudas mela, which concluded at Pehowa, 25 km from here, today.

After taking the holy dip, pilgrims performed worship and offered “pind daan” to the departed souls and tied cotton thread around a ‘peepal’ tree as it is believed that by doing so their ancestors will get salvation.

The pilgrims had reached Pehowa from various states, including Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and Delhi, yet majority of them were Sikhs who came from Punjab. The temples were decorated to attract pilgrims while bhandaras (free kitchens) were organised by various voluntary organisations.

Mela administrator-cum-subdivisional magistrate Sunil Kumar said the mela area was divided into four sectors and each sector was looked after by a magistrate. He said five CCTV cameras were installed to have a close watch on anti-social activities in the area. Fair price shops were opened to provide essential commodities to pilgrims while free medicine was also distributed among patients at the health centres, he added.

To maintain law and order, Deputy Superintendent of Police Randhir Singh Rana, with the police force, took a round of the area.

About 2,000 lost-and-found announcements were made by the local broadcasting system set up by the Haryana Public Relations and Information Department. Out of these, about 80 lost children, under the age of seven, were restored to their respective parents. However, no untoward incident has been reported so far.

Gurgaon, March 15
Four housing societies in Gurgaon have paid their pending electricity bills amounting to Rs 97.43 lakh after their power connections were cut by the authorities concerned.

According to official sources, the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) had launched a special campaign, under which power supply to the defaulting housing societies was cut. Subsequently, the connections of these societies were restored after they made the overdue payments. These societies have 1,290 flats.

A spokesman for the DHBVN said here today that API BSF, having 160 flats, had made a payment of Rs 20.02 lakh. The pending amount was charged on account of meter found slow in July, 2009. The power supply to the society was cut on February 27. Now, they have made the payment after 11 days of disconnection.

Similarly, President Green Villa, having 120 flats, has paid arrears of Rs 38 lakh, Hamilton Court paid defaulting amount of Rs 32.09 lakh and Global CGHS remitted arrears amounting Rs 7.32 lakh, which was charged by the audit party of the nigam.

The spokesman further stated that during the past 15 days, the DHBVN officials in Gurgaon had recovered arrears amounting to Rs 3 crore from 1,550 defaulting consumers by way of persuasion or disconnection.

Apart from this, the nigam officials detected as many as 135 cases of power theft in Gurgaon and imposed penalty amounting to Rs 30 lakh.

Karnal, March 15
Warehouse facility and fodder banks will be set up in every state in the country within two years to meet the green fodder shortage that affects milk yield and production.

With the highest population of Milch cattle in the world, India had been grappling with 10-20 per cent shortage of dry fodder and 30 per cent shortage of green fodder and it was imperative that the availability of green fodder with nutrients be increased to meet the demand gap, said Prof KML Pathak, Deputy Director-General (animal science), ICAR, said.

Blocks of green fodder would be prepared and stored in warehouses to regulate the supply and warehouses and fodder bank would be in place in all states in the next two years, he added.

Prof Pathak said scientists would provide door-to-door service to educate farmers about rearing the animals in a scientific way, keeping abreast with modern trends. Focus would be on educating the rural women that counts for 70 per cent of the population engaged in the animal husbandry sector.

Stating that region-specific fodder with suitable mineral contents would be prepared in different agro-climatic zones, Prof Pathak said the industry had been provided necessary technology to prepare nutrient-rich fodder.

He said Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in every district would focus on animal sciences to encourage animal husbandry farmers to adopt latest technology and give good fodder to animals for increasing milk production.

He said farmers’ representatives would be consulted before finalising the12th plan for the agriculture sector.

Bhiwani, March 15
The district administration today suspended the sarpanch and a panch of Samaspur village for allegedly inciting people in the infamous gotra row.

DC Vikas Gupta placed Sarpanch Surender and panch Ramesh of Samaspur village under suspension under section 51(1)(K) of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.

In a report submitted by the SP on March 10, it has been stated that Sribhagwan, son of Randhir Singh of Samaspur village, and Anita, daughter of Azad Singh of Makrani village, had tied the knot at the Arya Samaj temple, Vidya Nagar, Jaipur, on January 11. The report said the Sarpanch and the panch incited people of Samaspur village and made the marriage a gotra issue. People of Faugat gotra convened panchayats on February 26, 27 and March 3 and pronounced the social boycott of Randhir Singh and his family and asked them to leave the village. This created a serious law and order situation and it also violated the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Taking a serious note of the police report, the DC suspended the duo and stopped their rights of attending any meeting of the gram panchayat.

Chandigarh, March 15
Acting on a bunch of petitions by liquor licence holders seeking the renewal of permits, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today restrained the Haryana Excise and Taxation Commissioner from finalising fresh tenders till March 23. The directions are expected to affect the tender allocation process in Rewari and at least 10 other places.

The directions by the Division Bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Alok Singh were issued on petitions filed by Anita Chauhan of Rewari and other petitioners. Seeking the quashing of notification, dated February 26, inviting sealed tenders for existing vends, the petitioners claimed it was in violation of the Excise Policy for 2010-11.

Elaborating, the petitioners alleged the commissioner invited tenders for “allotment of retail liquor licence for the vends”, including the one run by her.

Chandigarh, March 15
Haryana continues to help colonisers acquire land. The petitions filed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court suggest the state has been acquiring land before releasing it to the colonisers, following their failure to buy it directly from the landowners.

This is not all. In Faridabad district, the state functionaries initiated land acquisition proceedings by issuing a notification under Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act. But soon after, they allegedly issued licenses to the colonisers to develop the land - a move objected to by the landowners. They have alleged the state is the facilitating the colonisers by “acquiring the land after the efforts of the developers to purchase the land from the landowners failed to yield any result”

In the petitions placed before the Division Bench of Justice MM Kumar and Justice Jitendra Chauhan, they have further alleged, “the proposed Sectors, from 75 to 80, are, in fact, being developed by private colonisers and developers. They have either been granted licenses or permission for change of land use for the development of the sectors, both before and after the issuance of the notifications”.

The petitioners, Ved Pal and three others from Faizpur Majra Neemka village, have added, initially the notification under Section 4 was issued on February 7, 2008, for the development of residential and commercial areas. Almost a year after, notification under Section 6 of the Act was issued, declaring their land has been acquired.

But chunks of land were left out of the acquisition process. In all, 246.51 acres were released before declaring their land has been acquired under Section 6 of the Act. Claiming the entire acquisition process is as such “vitiated by malafides”, they are seeking the quashing of the notifications for acquiring their lands.

Official figures reveal over 15 per cent of the land notified for acquisition was released in previous two years. 

Rewari, March 15
Six persons were killed and over 60 others injured, 19 of them seriously, when a private bus collided head-on with a dumper, on the Kanina-Mahendragrah road, near Seegda village, 45 km from here, today.

The deceased have been identified as Ashok Kumar (24) of Jhagdoli village, Janki Prasad (35) of Gudha village, Suresh Kumar Sharma (28) of Karoli village, Yogesh Yadav (19) of Kanina village, Ramesh Sharma (35) of Khorda village and Vinod Kumar (22) of Baghot village.

While eleven of the seriously injured were referred to the PGIMS, Rohtak, eight others were referred to the Civil Hospital, Narnaul.

The driver of the bus, belonging to Jhagdoli Transport Samiti, which was on the way to Mahendragarh from Kosli, lost control over the vehicle at Seegda village due to broken road and collided with a dumper. The bus driver reportedly jumped out and absconded. The police has booked the bus driver for mortal rashness and negligence.

Faridabad, March 15
The police raided a house in Green Field Colony here last evening and nabbed three persons on a charge of being involved in a gambling racket during the course of the IPL cricket match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. They are Naveen Sharma, Manoj Kumar and Dharmender, all local residents.

The police seized 100 mobile phones, over 100 earphones, a colour TV and other equipment used in running of the racket. — TNS