Sirsa, July 23: With the flood waters receding in the district, the authorities today ordered a survey to assess the loss due to the deluge.

A special girdawari to assess the loss to crops is also starting tomorrow.

“Six-member survey teams have been constituted for all flood/rain-affected villages by including a junior engineer, sarpanch, lambardars of all castes and panchayat secretaries. The teams have been directed to submit their report by July 31,” said Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan.

Twenty-nine such teams have been set up in the district. Block Development Officers and Subdivisional Magistrates would conduct inspection of the survey on a daily basis, he added.

He said all types of loss, including damage to houses and livestock, would be covered under the survey.

Meanwhile, Haryana minister Gopal Kanda today announced a grant of Rs 10 lakh for Ding, Rs 5 lakh for Jodhkan and Rs 2.5 lakh for Kukarthana village from his discretionary funds. TNS

Hisar, July 23
Eight persons were injured, two of them seriously, as heavy rains lashed the area late last evening.

The newly built boundary wall of Platform No. 1 of the local railway station collapsed, burying three persons under its debris. The victims sold edibles on handcarts on the other side of the wall.They were identified as Santosh, her daughter Rekha and Ram Kumar.

They were rescued and taken to a private hospital by shopkeepers where the condition of Santosh was described as serious.

In another incident, the roof of a house collapsed in Piranwali village, burying five brothers. One of the them, Satpal, was seriously injured as the iron girder supporting the roof fell on him. They were rescued by villagers who rushed to the accident site when the mother of the boys raised an alarm.

Chandigarh, July 23
The new industrial policy of Haryana will focus on bringing the benefits of industrialisation to the under-developed towns of the state. The policy is likely to be unveiled by mid-August.

Senior officials said the idea behind the new industrial policy was to ensure that “Haryana Shining” was not restricted to the National Capital Region and Rohtak. Often criticised by his detractors for focusing all development in his home district, Rohtak, and his son’s parliamentary constituency, CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda has reportedly ensured that the new policy creates incentives for industrialisation of Mewat, and the three districts in the Shivalik foothills - Panchkula, Ambala and Yamunanagar. This is an apparent bid to silence his critics. Panchkula, Ambala and Yamunanagar are located near the tax-exempt states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Over the past decade, whatever little industry earlier located here has shifted to these states. It is thus that these three districts will get more focus in the new industrial policy.

A meeting of various departments was held last evening to discuss the blue print of the new policy. A draft policy will be put before the Cabinet for approval next month. It is learnt that other than the development of industrially backward zones, infrastructure development will be the focus in the NCR cities of Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panipat.

Since these are major export hubs, the government proposes to provide adequate infrastructure here.

Officials said the government wanted the investment proposals received by the state come into effect at the earliest. “Investment proposals to the tune of over Rs 80,000 crore are in the pipeline and have to be implemented.

“These also include several SEZ projects, including the Reliance SEZ. Some incentives, including reducing the area for SEZs, will also be announced in the new industrial policy,” informed a senior official.

Hisar, July 23
Haryana Agricultural University has taken a slew of measures to curb ragging on the campus. Apart from constituting anti-ragging committees at the college level, a central anti-ragging committee headed by the Registrar has been constituted.

A spokesperson said here today that these committees would ensure that freshers were taken care of during their first few weeks in the university.

This year, representatives of the Deputy Commissioner, Superintendent of Police, media and youth organisations, old and fresh students (both boys and girls), parents, teachers and employees were made members of the Central anti-ragging committee. A hostel had been earmarked for male freshers, properly fenced and guarded round the clock. All freshers had been given a list of telephone numbers of deans of constituent colleges, officers of the Directorate of Students' Welfare and hostel wardens. CCTV cameras would be installed in the hostel to keep an eye on trespassers, the spokesperson said.

Teachers would accompany the freshers from the hostel to their classes and back.

SONEPAT: With the commencement of the new academic session, Deenbandhu Chhotu Ram University of Science and Technology, Murthal, has initiated a number of measures to prevent ragging.

The Vice Chancellor, HS Chahal, today said the university had formed escort committees for freshers. Hostels were being checked during night hours by embers of these committees.

Any student found guilty of ragging could be rusticated, the VC warned. The university had formed a 17-member anti-ragging committee with students and professors as members.

There had been no incident of ragging for the past two years in the three-year history of the university, he added.

Gurgaon, July 23
The anti-corruption drive at the local tehsil office has nailed the second revenue officer within a week. Deputy Commissioner Rajender Kataria has withdrawn the powers of registering documents from the Patoudi Tehsildar after receiving complaints of corruption against him.

In this case, Satparkash of Nanukhurd village in Patoudi tehsil of the district had alleged that the local Tehsildar, Satish Yadav, had refused to make an entry to his mutation and demanded a bribe of Rs 1,000 from him.

The complainant also alleged that despite the ban on registering general power of attorney (GPA) outside blood relations, Yadav was registering such documents.

He gave examples in support of his allegations, stating that six such illegal GPAs were registered by the Patoudi Tehsildar from April 7 to 12 this year. A complaint was made to the Patoudi SDM, Vatsal Vashist, who sought an explanation from the Tehsildar. However, the SDM did not receive a satisfactory reply from him.

Following this, Vashist brought the matter to the notice of the Deputy Commissioner and District Revenue Officer PD Sharma. Taking action on these complaints, Kataria withdrew the registration-related powers of Satish Yadav.

Only a couple of days ago, the registration powers of the Naib Tehsildar of Gurgaon, Kulwant Singh, were withdrawn by the Deputy Commissioner after he found irregularities in his functioning during an inspection.

Jhajjar, July 23
A youth was found murdered near a liquor shop at Dubaldhan village under the Beri police station here yesterday. The deceased has been identified as Happy (21). The police has registered a case of murder against three persons on a complaint of the victim’s father, Bijender Singh, in this regard. A dispute over a piece of land is stated to be reason behind the murder.

The incident came to light in the morning when some villagers spotted the body of Happy lying in a pool of blood near the liquor shop. They informed the police and the victim’s kin. The police reached the spot and sent the body to the Civil Hospital for postmortem. The body bore gunshot injury marks.

In his complaint lodged with the police, Bijender Singh said he had a dispute with his brothers over a piece of land. A case in this regard was also pending in the district courts. Following this enmity, his son had been murdered, he alleged. Jhajjar SSP Sourabh Singh said three persons, including an uncle and a cousin of the deceased, had been booked under Section 302 of the IPC in this regard.

Kurukshetra, July 23
The Federation of Haryana University Teachers Associations (FEDHUTA) has urged Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to implement the revised UGC scales and other recommendations in toto and raise the retirement age of university and college teachers to 65 years.

A delegation of FEDHUTA comprising office-bearers of various university teachers’ associations and led by its president, Dr Somveer Singh Rathee, called on the Chief Minister at his residence in Chandigarh to discuss the pending demands and apprised him of the guidelines released by the UGC on June 30. The delegation brought to the notice of the Chief Minister that the revised UGC scales had to implemented as a “composite package” which included raising the retirement age to 65 years.

Issues relating to advance increments for higher qualification like MPhil, MTech, PhD and LLM; entry-level pay of directly recruited teachers and equivalent cadres recruited on or after January 1, 2006; re-designation of readers and lecturers in the selection grade after three years of service as associate professor; placement of directly recruited professors at a scale not below Rs 43,000 and higher AGP of Rs 12,000 to senior professors were also raked up during the meeting.

Fatehabad, July 23
Dalbir Singh, Amarjit Singh and Balkar Singh died after consuming liquor at Shekhupur Sottar village in this district last night.

Dalbir and Amarjit Singh were found lying unconscious with froth coming out of their mouths by neighbours.

They were rushed to hospital. Balkar Singh died on the way to hospital, while Amarjit Singh and Dalbir Singh died later. The police has taken action under Section 174 of the CrPC.