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Mining Activity
Poll annulment leaves local Cong leaders red-faced
Ahlisadar Occurrence
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XEN’s attackers still at large
Gurgaon MC to tighten noose on cattle owners
Villages serve 3-day ultimatum on DHBVN
Speed governors tampered with, HC told
5 cops booked for undertrials’ escape
Man found murdered
SBI officer held for graft
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Mining Activity
Chandigarh, August 12 While mining in Haryana has been stopped as it is not permitted without prior clearance from the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests (MOEF), the court has permitted Punjab to continue with mining without such clearance for six months. The six-month permission has been given to Punjab despite the fact that the Supreme Court is yet to adjudicate if mining can be permitted temporarily without environment clearance, as was sought earlier by Haryana. The High Court had also given time to Haryana to carry out mining on May 15, 2009, in the Vijay Bansal versus Haryana case, so that development works did not suffer. The state was required to get environment clearance in the meanwhile. The relaxation given by the High Court was challenged before the Supreme Court in a PIL. The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the apex court filed a report in the case stating that the permission to continue mining was in contravention of law. It said: “In view of the legal provisions, MOEF’s Notification of September 14, 2006, and the Supreme Court’s orders of March 18, 2004, and May 8, 2009 in the MC Mehta case, no mining, including mining of minor minerals, can be allowed without environmental clearance.” Haryana again approached the High Court seeking a year’s extension to continue mining without environment clearance. However, the Bench headed by the Chief Justice ordered on February 19 last to wait for the orders of the apex court in the PIL. Haryana filed a similar application before the Supreme Court on February 24 last. The apex court is yet to hear this application. Meanwhile, one Partap Singh Sandhu filed a PIL before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking orders similar to those issued by it in the Vijay Bansal case of Haryana, for Punjab. The High Court passed almost identical orders on November 6, 2009 but permitted Punjab to grant mining contracts up to May 31, 2010, without environment clearance. In the meantime, another case filed by one Manpreet Singh, who had challenged the auction of minor minerals quarries of some of districts of Punjab, came up for hearing before a Single Judge, who stayed the auctions. Punjab sought extension of deadline after May 31, 2010, from the Division Bench where Sandhu’s PIL was pending as well as before the Single Judge hearing Manpreet Singh’s petition. The Division Bench on May 28, 2010, permitted Punjab to auction the mines; but no mine was to be allotted till June 30, 2010. On July 13, 2010, the Single Judge granted another six months to Punjab. The Division Bench held on July 23, 2010, that the matter involved in the applications before it should also be governed by the orders passed by the Single Judge. Advocates assisting the Single Judge had failed to inform him about the Supreme Court’s orders in the MC Mehta case. Also, the Judge was not informed about the orders of the Division Bench of the High Court of February 19, 2010, declining similar extension to Haryana, subject to the orders of the Supreme Court. The result is that mining without clearance will continue for another six months from July 13, 2010 in Punjab, whereas in Haryana mining without environment clearance has been stopped since March 1, 2010. |
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Poll annulment leaves local Cong leaders red-faced
Sirsa, August 12 After receiving a complaint from Ashok Tanwar, MP, the AICC general secretary, Oscar Fernandez, has asked Haryana Pradesh returning officer Raju Parmar to hold fresh elections in Sirsa and Fatehabad districts, besides the Narwana assembly constituency that falls under Sirsa, within 10 days. Tanwar refused to go into details of the controversy, but confirmed that freshs election would be conducted in 10 days. Sources close to Tanwar say he was not happy over the manner in which organisational elections were conducted in his constituency. Jai Singh Bishnoi, returning officer appointed by the party for the two districts, had announced the names of Hoshiari Lal and Randhir Singh as district presidents for Sirsa and Fatehabad, respectively. Both were occupying the post. Bishnoi had announced the names of Gobind Kanda, former minister Lachhman Dass Arora, former OSD to CM KV Singh, Jasbir Singh Riar, MP Ashok Tanwar, former minister Jagdish Nehra, Malkiat Singh Khosa, former chairman of planning board Ranjit Singh, former MP Sushil Indora, Bharat Singh Beniwal and Mani Ram Keharwala as delegates for the HPCC from Sirsa. From Fatehabad district, he had announced the names of Arvind Sharma, Jitender Singh Gillankhera, Jaipal Singh Lali, former MP Atma Singh Gill, Minister Paramvir Singh, Sharad Batra, Kulbir Beniwal, Dura Ram and Baldev Singh as delegates for the HPCC. The sources said Tanwar was piqued at not being consulted before announcing office-bearers in his parliamentary constituency. Tanwar is believed to have produced some local Congress leaders loyal to him, who were appointed ROs at the block level, before Fernandez. They alleged that they were made to sign on blank papers. “We were asked to sign a set of three blank papers the day we were issued appointment letters as RO,” one of them alleged. “The elections were a sham and names were finalised by a few people sitting in drawing rooms without caring for the sentiments of the grassroots workers,” he alleged. Most leaders appointed on key posts during the elections have been avoiding speaking to mediapersons. The mobile of Bishnoi was switched off. |
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Ahlisadar Occurrence
Fatehabad, August 12 Another similarity was the rainfall that occurred within half an hour of the tornado. The Met Department has completed its report on the tornado witnessed in Ahlisadar and submitted its copies to the central and state governments. Surender Paul, Director, Met Department, Chandigarh office, had visited the site immediately after reports on the tornado appeared in the media. The findings suggest it was a waterspout with a small diameter, formed from vertically growing clouds. The dark cloud was formed about 800m north of Tibi Dhani near Ahlisadar 15 minutes before the occurrence of the event. At about 1412 hours, a white funnel a little less than 3 ft came out of the cloud towards Dhani and descended on a paddy field about 600m south of Tibi Dhani and about 1300m-1500m from the main cloud. The cloud funnel, after descending on the paddy field, started sucking water standing in the field and disbursing the same in the north (parent cloud). After it touched fields south of Dhani, an inwards spiralling cloud in anti-clockwise rotation traversed northeast to about 500m and reached cotton fields where some plants were uprooted. It remained stationary for two to three minutes in the cotton field and disappeared for a moment into the main cloud but again appeared and traversed southwest towards the paddy field, distance of about 200m, before finally dissipating, the report says. The report concludes that the tornado emanated from thundercloud cumulus/cumulonimbus and appeared to be a small tornado with a relatively weak whirling mass. The report says the weather conditions observed at the Hisar observatory on July 22 indicated cumulus and altocumulus clouds with winds from south and south-east. The Met Department report also says that these systems need be documented and analysed as climatology. |
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4-year-old boy hacked to death
Sonepat, August 12 DSP Sadhu Ram and Kharkhoda SHO Gajender Singh, along with fingerprint experts, reached the spot and found Raman’s chappals from the premises of the village temple. Blood drops were reportedly found on the floor of the temple. The body was brought to the civil hospital for postmortem. On the complaint of Raman’s paternal uncle, Naresh, a case has been registered against unidentified persons. Preliminary investigations indicate that it is a case of either sodomy or sacrifice. An only child, Raman was born to his parents after 14 years of marriage. He had gone to his uncle’a garden at around 3 pm yesterday when it started to rain. He told his uncle he wanted to play in the rain and went towards the Shiv temple located nearby. When the boy neither returned to the garden, nor his house, panicky family members and villagers searched for him throughout the night in the village pond, a canal distributary and other places. His body was found lying under the paddy husk in the wee hours. |
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XEN’s attackers still at large
Faridabad, August 12 The police yesterday claimed that it had identified the motorycycle used by the criminals; however, it today said that it had followed a wrong lead. The police said raids had been conducted at several places and teams had been constituted to nab the culprits. In a related development, MC commissioner Mahtab Singh Sehrawat asked police commissoner PK Aggarwal to take a strict action against the culprits. Bhaskar, who sustained multiple fractures on his limbs, was attacked by three motorcycle-borne youths, in the Sector-15 market in broad daylight yesterday. The criminals appeared to have done their homework long time ago. They attacked Bhaskar as soon as he got down from his official car. Bhaskar tried to flee into a book shop but in vain. The fact that the three had covered their faces has made the police suspicious that the attack was pre-planned. |
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Gurgaon MC to tighten noose on cattle owners
Gurgaon, August 12 This was decided today at a meeting held under the local Municipal Commissioner Rajesh Khullar. After having reviewed the work of catching the stray cattle, Khullar said the corporation had prepared a plan to make Gurgaon a stray cattle-free city. According to the plan, no stray cattle would be seen wandering in the city from next year. The corporation has also got a cowshed constructed at Kartarpuri village on the city outskirts. It has been constructed on five-acre land for about Rs 1 crore. The corporation had caught 980 stray cows in the city since March, of which about 146 were released after penalising their owners. Khullar said the job of catching stray pigs had been given to an NGO, People For Animals (PFA). The corporation had constructed a sty on one-acre land at Kherki Majra village. The pigs once caught would not be released in any case, Khullar added. He said a programme of sterilising the stray dogs was also underway and the PFA had sterilised 5,000 dogs so far. The meeting of the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation held under the municipal commissioner decided to substantially increase the fine imposed on cattle owners for letting their animals roam free from Rs 1,500 to Rs 8,000. However, the incentive to the employees for catching stray cattle has been increased to Rs 15. |
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Villages serve 3-day ultimatum on DHBVN
Sirsa, August 12 The villages expressed resentment at the “maltreatment” meted out to them at a meeting called by Deputy Commissioner CG Rajini Kaanthan to resolve the dispute yesterday. They claimed that a “mahapanchayat” would be organised on August 17 in case the authorities failed to relent by then. Villagers alleged that a false case had been registered against three farmers on the complaint of SDO Vikas Thakral. “We are being doubly victimised. On the one hand, we are not being provided sufficient power supply and on the other, our people are being arrested in fake cases,” alleged farmers. Prahlad S. Bharukhera, district president of the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, said that his organisation would support the farmers’ agitation. Som Nath Duggal, district president of the Shiv Sena, also offered support to the agitation. The police had booked three farmers under Section 332, 353, 186 of the IPC on July 30. The villagers were holding a demonstration against erratic power by locking the 33 KV power sub-station at Shahidanwali when the complainant, SDO Vikas Thakral, accompanied by other officials, went to pacify them. Thakral alleged he was beaten up by the three farmers andf intimidated. The police arrested Sat Pal, one of the accused, after the DHBVN mounted pressure on the police by holding a demonstration on Saturday. Rama Nand, another accused, was arrested today. |
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Speed governors tampered with, HC told
Chandigarh, August 12 In an additional affidavit placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Mukul Mudgal and Justice Ajay Tewari, the commissioner quoted the report by the state Transport DG to say that speed governors have been installed in all buses and are being checked. But in some buses the speed governors have been tampered with. Disciplinary action under rule 8 of the Punishment and Appeal Rules has been taken against such employees. The affidavit also says the Director-General of Police has been requested to ensure strict compliance and effective implementation of the high court orders on installation of speed governors, as the Transport Department neither has the technical staff, nor radars to monitor vehicles’ speed. The Bench also asked Punjab to clarify why goods vehicles had been left out of the ambit of the notification issued on the installation of speed governors. The Bench asserted it was of the view that the earlier order on the issue covered all vehicles, including goods vehicles. The directions came on a PIL by the Suraksha Foundation. The foundation had earlier sought directions to the state of Punjab and another respondent to “follow the provisions of Rule 118 of the Central Motor Vehicle Rules; and to direct the state to prepare an implementation plan for the installation of electronic speed limiters within a specific time frame. Already, the HC has called for brakes on rash driving by ensuring that all medium to heavy goods and passenger vehicles registered in the state are fitted with speed
governors. |
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5 cops booked for undertrials’ escape
Panipat, August 12 Meanwhile, the police today registered a case against five cops, including a sub-inspector, for dereliction of duty. These cops were escorting the accused back to the jail when they escaped. The policemen who have been booked are sub-inspector Satbir Singh and constables Rajneesh, Arjun, Sanjay and Gursher. The police has constituted five teams to nab the accused. The teams raided several places, police sources said. According to the sources, the three undertrails are hardened criminals who are facing several charges in different cases. Anil, a resident of Kathura village in Sonepat district, is merely 20 years old but has 20 cases registered against him related to robberies and issuing threats. Sandeep, a resident of Kurar village in Panipat, is facing criminal charges in eight cases, mostly related to thefts. The third accused, Sanjay, a resident of Sheikhupura village in Karnal, has been accused of rape and murder in different cases. He has five cases registered against him. The Sonepat police had taken eight undertrails, lodged at the Karnal jail, to the Sonepat court on production warrants. |
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Man found murdered
Bhiwani, August 12 A case under Section 302 of the IPC has been registered on a complaint of the victim’s wife, Sarita Jha. Suraj worked as a contractor at a factory in the industrial area and was a resident of Bhagalpur, Bihar. SP Ashwin Shainvi said the body was sent to the local Civil Hospital for autopsy. However, the hospital authorities referred it to the PGIMS, Rohtak. Civil Lines police station SHO Dilbag Singh said the culprits would be arrested soon though no arrests had been made so far. The complainant, Sarita Jha, suspected the factory owner’s hand in the murder, he added. |
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SBI officer held for graft
Chandigarh, August 12 The CBI said complainant Ram Vir Singh alleged that his disbursement of loan amount worth Rs 3 lakh under the Kissan Credit Cards Scheme was pending with Ram Kumar, to be paid either at his office or residence. The CBI registered a case under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and laid a tarp. Ram Singh’s accomplice Amir Singh accepted the bribe on his behalf and in his presence. Both have been arrested and search was being conducted at Ram’s residence. |
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