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Now on, grants in bank accounts of Panchayati Raj bodies
Bus passengers left in the lurch
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Breaches in rivulets, 60 villages cut off
Panipat’s housing society dumping wastewater in green belt
Lawyer’s crusade against jumbo-sized AG office
KU campus goes Wi-Fi
Youth kills father, aunt over property
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Now on, grants in bank accounts of Panchayati Raj bodies
Kurukshetra July 25 He was addressing more than 68,000 elected representatives of local bodies, including 24,800 women, after administering them the oath of office at Theme Park here today. The Chief Minister said the government had constituted the Fourth Finance Commission to improve the financial health of Panchayati Raj
institutions that had suggested that the grant be directly transferred to the bank accounts of these insitutions
every year. He said he had already ordered that the first installment of Rs 50 crore be transferred to in all such accounts. He said under Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojna, 3.27 lakh plots of 100 sq yards each had already been allotted. The Chief Minister called upon the elected representatives to help bring villages on a par with
Hooda said he had started his political career as chairman of Panchayat Samiti when such bodies did not have participation in government. Today, the panchayats were entitled to undertake developmental works costing Rs 5 lakh at their own level and panchayat samitis were empowered to undertake works involving an investment of up to Rs 10 lakh. Similarly, zila parishads were entitled to developmental works of up to Rs 15 lakh at their own level. He said the representatives were getting honorarium which had been enhanced. The Chief Minister congratulated the newly elected representatives and wished them success. He underlined the significance of water in our lives and asked them to take a pledge to conserve each drop of water. President of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee Phool Chand Mullana said unprecedented development had taken place in rural areas during the past five years under the leadership of Hooda. Dr Ram Parkash, MP, was all praise for the CM. Naveen Jindal, MP, urged the representatives to stay away from petty politics and undertake works in rural areas. Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dharambir Singh, Principal Secretary, Development and Panchayat, P. Raghvendra Rao, MP Arvind Sharma, working president of the HPCC Ishwar Singh and Health Minister Geeta Bhukkal also spoke. |
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Bus passengers left in the lurch
Jind, July 25 There was chaos at the general bus stand when passengers were told that there would hardly be any service today. The passengers, including women and kids, were seen opting for private vehicles whose owners made a
moolah. The local roadways depot has 155 buses in operational condition out of which 76 buses were deputed to carry the newly elected representatives to
Kurukshetra. The remaining buses had been ordered to ply on selected routes, mainly long routes while short-distance commuters were left hapless. Hardly any bus plied on routes connecting Jind with
Assandh, Bhiwani, Gohana, Barwala and Narwana, claimed sources in the department. However, officials claimed that efforts had been made to provide bus service to commuters despite the shortage of buses today. |
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IAF chopper makes emergency landing
Fatehabad, July 25 The incident occurred at 11.10 am today when Chetak helicopter Z 1810, that took off from Sirsa station of the IAF for Hindon, developed a snag and the pilots reportedly observed smoke in its tail portion. “I heard a noise and when I looked upwards, I noticed a helicopter right over my head approaching my house,” said Madan Lal Manjhu, a farmer, who lives in a house constructed in the middle of his fields. The helicopter landed at a distance of 30 yards from his house in the cotton fields. “When the helicopter landed in front of me, I noticed smoke emanating from its tail portion. Soon, the two pilots came out and demanded water to douse the fire. I gave them buckets of water from my underground tank and the smoke was immediately brought under control,” Manjhu added. Both pilots appeared calm but a little baffled when The Tribune team reached there almost one and a half hours after the emergency landing. However, they said they did not have the authority to answer any query of mediapersons. However, Gp Capt Anil Sabharwal, Station Commander of the IAF Station, Sirsa, said the chopper belonged to the Hindon station and had taken off from Sirsa for that station with the two pilots. He said the chopper developed a snag, but the two pilots were able to land it safely in agriculture fields near Chindhar. Sabharwal added that a technical team from Hindon would arrive soon to detect the fault. Deputy Commissioner OP Sheoran and the SP JS Lamba reached the landing site and deployed a police force to maintain order as a large number of villagers had assembled there to watch the chopper. Meanwhile, a team of IAF men from Sirsa, led by Wing Commander Bhanu Partap, reached the village in a separate helicopter to provide support to their bewildered colleagues. Later, both pilots left for Sirsa in that chopper and armed guards of the IAF stood duty near the flawed chopper. “The chopper is likely to be shifted to Sirsa by a crane for repairs tomorrow, though the final decision will be taken by the technical team arriving from Hindon this evening,” said Shamsher Singh Dahiya, SHO of the Sadar police station, Fatehabad, who is maintaining order at the site. |
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Central team assesses damage to stored wheat in Sirsa
Sirsa, July 25 The team, led by Jitender Narain, a Joint Secretary in the Food and Consumer Affairs Department of the Centre, today took a boat ride around the storehouse where the HWC authorities have left 1,70,000 bags of wheat to rot in the flood waters. Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan, FCI consultant Ashok Kumar and local officers of the FCI, the HWC, Hafed and the Food and Supplies Department, accompanied Narain. “I have inspected the storehouse and will submit my report to the government,” Jitender Narain said. However, Ashok Kumar said the exact loss would be known only after the water receded in the area. He added that the bags of wheat would be sorted in accordance with the parameters of the FCI and the food found unfit for human consumption could be used for animals and birds. Meanwhile, the district authorities informed that 8,500 tonnes of wheat worth Rs 11 crore had been submerged in the flood waters in the HWC storehouse in Bani village. “Around 5,500 tonnes of wheat is lying in the storehouse, while 3,000 tonnes is stacked on a plinth in the open,” said a spokesperson for the district authorities. The spokesperson claimed that the central team had inspected wheat stacked in other storehouses in the district and had found the food safely stored. The HWC authorities acted in a lackadaisical manner after they were warned about floods and while wheat from another storehouse of Confed was moved out from the village, the agency officials failed to act in time resulting in the rotting of wheat due to its submersion under 10 ft water. |
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Breaches in rivulets, 60 villages cut off
Yamunanagar, July 25 Over two dozen house and a government school has suffered damages and agricultural land in hundreds of acres inundated. The breaches have caused a flood-like situation in the two sub-divisions virtually cut off with the Chhachharuli-Bilaspur and Bilaspur-Khirabad roads as well as a part of NH-73, which links Yamunangar with Poanta Sahib, submerged in water. Chhachhrauli witnessed 156 mm of rainfall anf Bilaspur 180 mm. Accompanied by irrigation officers, DC Ashok Sangwan is making all effort to plug the breaches in the seasonal rivulets caused by the depleting of sand and stone due to unscientific mining. Houses, shopes and agricultural land are submerged in 5 ft of water in several villages, which are also facing a power blackout with their transformers damaged. In Chhachhrauli most villages have been submerged in water. A large number of villagers were seen standing on roofs of their houses with the administration not having enough boats to shift them to safer places. The situation is similar in Bilaspur and Sadaura villages. They villagers fear threat to their lives in case of another spell of rainfall in the district or the catchments areas of rivulets in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh. |
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Panipat’s housing society dumping wastewater in green belt
Panipat, July 25 The green belt has turned into a stinking pond and even the plantation here has been ruined due to the accumulating wastewater. Even as the locals continue to suffer, various government departments, including the HUDA, state Pollution Control Board and the Co-operatives Department, are busy blaming each other for the lapse. According to the executive engineer of HUDA, during an inspection conducted recently, it was found that the society had been disposing the wastewater in the green belt area due to blockage of the HUDA sewer line. In reply to an RTI query, the HUDA stated that the blocked sewer could not be rectified in spite of all efforts and thus steps were being taken for re-laying the sewerage system in this area for which the work had been initiated. The HUDA also said the NFL society had been issued notices to stop disposing wastewater in the green belt. The society had been advised to dispose of the sewage on the other side of Phase II. The HUDA said the issue related to the executive engineer, horticulture division, of HUDA. The state Pollution Control Board in reply to another RTI query stated that the society had been connected to a sewer of Sector 13-17 of HUDA. Therefore, the responsibility of proper disposal of effluents was that of HUDA. The board said it had issued notices to the executive engineer, HUDA, to install sewer system for all residential and industrial sectors to control water pollution. The board also said it had also collected samples of the water being dumped in the green belt and sent those to its laboratory for testing. The registrar of co-operative societies stated that they had not received any complaint from anybody in this regard and thus no action could be initiated against the society. RTI activist Rajinder Rathee, who had sought the information using the RTI Act, said he had also asked the Health Department about what sort of health problems could an open disposal of sewage cause and why no action had been initiated to check this problem. The department had so far not given any reply though two and a half months had passed. He said it was the lackadaisical attitude of the authorities concerned that the locals continue to suffer as no corrective measures were being initiated to resolve the issue. |
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Lawyer’s crusade against jumbo-sized AG office
Chandigarh, July 25 Advocate Hemant Kumar has invoked the RTI Act to find out if any guidelines have been framed for the appointment of law officers in the AG office. He says that over 140 advocates have been appointed as Senior Additional AG, Additional AG, Senior Deputy AG, Deputy AG and Assistant AG in Haryana since December last year, with 39 being appointed earlier this month. He says the law officers are being appointed more on political considerations than merit. His query under the RTI Act with the State Public Information Officer (SPIO) in the Haryana administration of the Justice Department in this regard evoked a one-line response that the state government was the competent authority to appoint the law officers in the AG office. Aggreived by the lackadaisical attitude of the SPIO, Hemant filed an appeal under Section 19(1) of the RTI Act before the First Appellate Authority of the same department, which is yet to be decided. Meanwhile, he has filed another RTI application wanting to know for how many years of legal practice each law officer in the AG office has to his or her credit. He has also sought the details of salary and other emoluments admissible to them. He says over the past few years, successive governments of both Haryana and Punjab have used the office of the AG to oblige their favourites. Currently, Punjab has over 130 such law officers. The appointment of such law officers is though not full time and it is usually coterminous with the tenure of the incumbent government. He says these laws officers are usually the ruling party loyalists or kith and kin of those who are close to the powers that be. He says it is unfortunate that despite such a large army of the law officers, various Benches of the High Court have commented from time to time that the government cases are not well represented. |
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KU campus goes Wi-Fi
Kurukshetra, July 25 The network is designed to ensure optimum quality of service for multiple applications while ensuring that the network is ubiquitous, irrespective of topography. The “all-wireless” infrastructure enables high-speed wireless bridging between multiple education buildings, hostels, university guest house, canteens, markets, cafeterias and other facilities spread across the campus. Inaugurating the Wi-Fi network here today, Haryana Chief Minister BS Hooda said: “It would help the students in getting the latest information about various subjects, getting connected to global research facilities while they are on the move and further boost the image of the university on the national and international levels.” “The Wi-Fi network will enable us to realise our goal of managing and teaching through the WLAN network to facilitate lecturers and also enhance students’ learning experiences,” Vice-Chancellor DDS Sandhu said, adding that it would also help in implementing e-governance on the campus. |
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Youth kills father, aunt over property
Rohtak, July 25 The youth and his two accomplices fled away after committing the crime. The incident took place when Jasbir (25), who came with his two accomplices, reached the grocery shop run by his father, Rajender, alias Raja, and opened fire on him from a close range. The three, who had come on a motorcycle, then went to a nearby pond and allegedly shot dead Shakuntala (40), sister-in-law of Rajender and aunt of Jasbir. Both victims died on the spot. It is reported that Jasbir was upset with his father over a dispute regarding the property as his father had a soft corner towards his aunt after his mother died a few years ago and had been reportedly residing with her for some time. The police has registered a case against Jasbir and his two accomplices - Vikas and Vicky - in this connection. The police lifted samples from the spot and sent the bodies for postmortem. The complaint was lodged by the daughter
of the woman who was shot dead. “Special teams have been set up to nab the accused, all of whom
are residents of Ismaila village. Preliminary investigation suggests that an old dispute led to this incident,” said a police
official. |
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