Chandigarh, March 16
A third breach of privilege motion against INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala in the third consecutive sitting, moved by MLA Aftab Ahmed, was admitted by voice vote in the Haryana Assembly here today.

The run-up to the admission of the privilege motion remained unchanged as Ahmed moved the same right after the Question Hour. The INLD members raised a hue and cry from their seats, went to the well of the House to lodge their protest, raised slogans and finally staged a walkout before Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha admitted it.

However, today’s privilege motion attempts to nail Chautala for allegedly “misleading” the House by stating that Reliance had been given 1,500 acres of government land at a cost of Rs 370 crore in the garb of providing employment, particularly when the HSIIDC had acquired this land for the welfare of the people.

Ahmed said Chautala had added that a four-acre chunk of land out of this piece had been auctioned for Rs 290 crore, causing loss to the exchequer and committing a fraud which was untrue.

Further, the MLA said Chautala had stated that the SEZ land was acquired on the promise of giving farmers a bonus/annuity of Rs 10,000 per acre per year but no money had been given so far. Challenging this contention, Ahmed said annuity was being paid at Rs 30,000 per year for SEZ as per the policy.

Meanwhile, Chautala, claimed that the government was trying to stifle the voice of the Opposition. “We have not been given enough time to put forth our point of view. If we do get a chance, the government brings a breach of privilege motion against us. We, too, bought a similar privilege motion against the Finance Minister for leaking the budget by announcing the surcharge on VAT in the press gallery without informing the House but nothing came of it while the Congress managed to get three such motions admitted,” Chautala claimed.

Maintaining that the Congress was a “coalition government”, Chautala said the five Haryana Janhit Congress MLAs would face disqualification whenever the Speaker gives his verdict. “However, it remains to be seen how long that will take. If we feel delaying tactics are being employed, we will move court to direct the Speaker to give a time-bound order,” Chautala added.

After the conclusion of the budget session, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the allegation of the Opposition that adequate time was not given to its members to speak on the budget was baseless. “We know that the INLD used the bolt the door from inside and pass the budget. There were times when the budget was passed even in one hour,” Hooda added.

Hooda said the treasury benches would have welcomed a constructive role of the Opposition rather than its attempt to mislead the House.

Chandigarh, March 16
Defective budgeting, improper planning, slow implementation of schemes, faulty execution of works - the report of the Controller and Auditor-General of India on Haryana, presented to the Haryana Legislative Assembly, found this and much more.

It also brought to light, inter alia, deficiencies in systems and procedures, excess payments, wasteful and avoidable expenditure.

In the National Rural Health Mission, the government was found wanting in completion of household and facility survey while there was no preparation of perspective and annual plans and lack of planning.

The CAG report states that household survey to identify target groups, though planned in 2007-08, had not been started while the district perspective plan was not prepared in 11 out of 20 districts.

Against construction of nine CHCs, 79 PHCs and 44 SCs, no health centre was constructed during 2005-09 in spite of fund availability. Against detection of 36,487 cases of refractive errors, only 6,937 students were provided free of cost spectacles and the state was way behind in achievement of targets set for 2010 for infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate and sex ratio.

On the modernisation of the police force, launched to meet the challenges to internal security effectively and to overcome the deficiencies of buildings, mobility, weapons and training equipments, the report said the police force was not equipped with sophisticated modern weapons and continued to depend on outdated weaponry.

In the Desert Development Programme (DDP), to develop waste and degraded lands, long-term perspective plan was not prepared. Out of 441 watershed projects sanctioned between 1999 and 2003 under the DDP, only 118 were completed .

The performance audit of functioning of the Haryana Roadways disclosed that the Roadways suffered a loss of Rs 637.99 crore in 2004-09.

Chandigarh, March 16
The Haryana Assembly today passed 10 Bills amidst repeated walkouts by the Opposition.

The Bills included the Haryana Appropriation (No.1) Bill and the Haryana Appropriation (No.2) Bill to authorise payment and appropriation of certain further sums out of the consolidated fund during the financial year ending March 31, 2010 and ending March 31, 2011, respectively, and the Haryana Special Economic Zone (Amendment) Bill, 2010. The Bill made an enabling provision to permit refund of the stamp duty already paid once a SEZ is notified.

The Haryana Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill was also passed. The Haryana Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (Amendment) Bill would enable the state to borrow up to 4 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) during 2009-10.

The others Bills passed by the House were the Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, East Punjab War Awards (Haryana Amendment) Bill, the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development (Haryana Amendment) Bill, the Haryana Dohlidar, Butimar, Bhondedar and Muqararidar (Vesting of Proprietary Rights) Bill, the Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences Hisar Bill and the Haryana Evacuee Properties (Management and Disposal) Amendment Bill.

Panipat, March 16
After detaining STF chief Ashok Sheoran for over two nights, the district police today placed him under arrest. Seven other STF men, who had been arrested late last night, were produced before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Gagandeep Kaur and were sent in police remand for four days. Sheoran would be produced before the court tomorrow.

The accused, including ASI Vijay Pal, head constable Jagbir, head constable Raj Kapoor, head constable Iswar Singh along with constables Vinod Kumar, Dharam Singh and Mahinder Singh, were brought to the court complex amidst tight security. After prosecution counsel RS Dahiya sought remand of the accused on grounds that the matter required further investigations, the court ordered that the accused be kept in police custody till March 20.

The seven cops had been rounded up by the district police on Sunday along with ASP Ashok Sheoran. They (other then Sheoran) were interrogated for over 24 hours before they were formally placed under arrest, late last night.

The police had not arrested ASP Ashok Sheoran yesterday stating that he had to be further questioned to ascertain his involvement in the cases of extortion. After being detained for yet another night, he was arrested at today.

Sources said the interrogating officials were trying to draw a sequence of events that had led to the crimes on March 10 in which the STF men had extorted Rs 6 lakh from stockbroker Rajat Aggarwal and attempted to extort Rs 10 lakh from jeweller VK Malhotra. Besides, the police was also working on recovering the money.

The STF members had been caught on CCTV camera installed at the jewellery shop that had enabled the police to nab them.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed sources said the accused had told their interrogators that they had only received Rs 2 lakh from Rajat Aggarwal and he had filed a false complaint that Rs 6 lakh had been extorted from him. District police chief Rajinder Singh was not available for comments.

Sirsa, March 16
Students of Chaudhary Devi Lal University today went on a strike against the alleged delay in the payment of scholarship for those belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes and delay in the refund of security deposit of those living in hostels. The students came out of their classes and started raising slogans against the authorities.

While, a majority of students left the campus, several others, including the hostelers, sat on dharna outside the main gate. Registrar RK Sehgal claimed that the payment towards the scholarship of BC students for 2008-09 has recently been received from the government and would be released to the students soon, but funds for scholarship of the SC students were still awaited. He also said he was not aware that the university was charging security deposit from hostelers every year.

Chandigarh, March 16
Seeking inclusion in Below Poverty Line (BPL) list and minimum wages, a large number of watchmen from Haryana staged a demonstration in support of their demands in Sector 25 here today. Members of the Haryana Gramin Chowkidar Sabha raised slogans against the indifferent attitude of the state government towards their demands and stated that they would be forced to intensify their stir.

They demanded class VI status for watchmen and fixation of their working hours. Besides, they also insisted for Rs 200 per month old age pension, a 100 square yard plot, appointing watchmen for every 200-300 houses.