Fatehabad, August 20
Complaints of fungus-infested wheat being sold to the poor through the public distribution system (PDS) have come from Nadel village in this district. Villagers held a demonstration yesterday and demanded action against the depot-holder as well as the authorities responsible for supplying the rotten wheat.

“The wheat being supplied to us through the PDS is not even worthy of feeding animals. Our children will be taken ill if they are made to eat it,” said Amarjit Kaur, a villager. Pritam Singh, another villager, alleged that the authorities considered the poor and slum-dwellers worse than animals.

That was why they tried to liquidate their stocks of decayed wheat by selling it to the poor. Villagers alleged that the depot-holder refused to listen to their complaints and maintained that he would supply whatever foodgrains were supplied to him. “The depot-holder refused to listen to our complaint and got furious with us and said if 40 other families could purchase this wheat, why coulldn’t we,” alleged a villager, Gurmail Kaur.

The villagers alleged that the supply of poor quality foodgrains was a common problem and even the food and supplies authorities refused to listen to their complaint.

The District Food and Supplies Controller, DS Doon, however, tried to downplay the lapse and said the wheat was slightly discoloured and not infested with fungus.

He said the wheat sometimes was discoloured due to moisture but that did not render the foodgrains rotten. Bags of discoloured wheat, he added, had since been replaced.

Doon further alleged that the villagers were making much outcry because a section of them wanted to change the depot-holder.

Sirsa, August 20
The Haryana State Warehousing Corporation (HSWC) has started lifting the drenched wheat from its storehouse after water receded from several parts in Bani village.

The wheat bags are being shifted to another storehouse of the HSWC within the village. “We started lifting the drenched wheat bags on August 15 and till now as many as 22,000 bags have been shifted from there,” said Krishan Kumar, MD, HSWC. As many as 1,70,000 bags of wheat were submerged when floods had struck the village on July 17.

“Due to stagnant water between Bani one and Bani two, the tractor-trolleys carrying the wheat are forced to cover a longer distance of 15 km to reach one part of the village from the other. Still, the route is not fit for trucks,” the MD maintained, adding that it would take another 15 days to shift the stocks.

Meanwhile, floodwater has been drained out from the main market of the village.

Rewari, August 20
Owing to heavy rains in the past 48 hours, rainwater has collected in the Civil Hospital and the bus stand here as well as various main roads and low-lying colonies. At least 3ft to 5 ft rainwater standing in the Civil Hospital complex is causing untold hardship to patients and doctors. Water accumulated at Circular Road and the bypass has rendered these areas unmotorable.

Addressing a press conference here today, district BJP chief Laxman Singh Yadav had a dig at the local minister for his repeated announcements that large sums had been spent on the renovation of roads in the past six years.

The DC, A. Sriniwas, along with senior officials visited Hari Nagar, Jatuwas, Nangal Mundi, Sharanwas and Gokalgarh villages and the rain-ravaged areas in the city.

Yamunanagar: The situation continues to be tense in the low-lying areas of the state due to heavy rainfall in the catchments area of the Yamuna, although the water level in the Yamuna went down to 68,000 cusecs from 2.08 lakh cusecs at the Hathnikund barrage here.

The water released from the Hathnikund barrage into the Yamuna yesterday is expected to reach Delhi tomorrow late evening, a senior official said.

The situation remains grim in 25 villages of Radaur, Jagadhri and Chhachhrauli subdivisions, where some houses and agricultural land have been submerged. The water has receded from residential areas of most villages but not the fields.

The situation is critical in Sandhali, Sandhali, Lapra, Shekhpura, Pauwari, Lal Chapar, Balachaur, Bibipur, Kaith, Lal Chapar villages in Radaur and Jagadhri subdivisions. In 10 villages of Chhachhrauli, mostly Panjeto, many houses remain submerged in water. — TNS

Chandigarh, August 20
A relief of Rs 94.93 crore will be paid to farmers whose crops were damaged in the recent floods in Haryana.

This figure has been calculated as per the state norms on the basis of damage to crops assessed through a special girdawari.

This was revealed at a meeting of the state-level committee constituted to administer the Haryana Calamity Relief Fund, which was chaired by Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati here today.

She directed officers to disburse the relief immediately.

Old cases of compensation should be cleared this month, she added.

The special girdawari was conducted in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Karnal, Fatehabad and Sirsa districts. It was found that maximum damage (76 to 100 per cent) to the paddy crop was in Fatehabad district while the least was in Yamunanagar district.

In Fatehabad district, 76 per cent to 100 per cent damage to paddy crop had been recorded on 60,054 acres followed by Kurukshetra, where the damage was on 49,913 acres.

In Sirsa district the damage was on 32,727 acres, in Ambala on 14,150 acres, in Kaithal on 21,517 acres and in Yamunangar on 679 acres.

Similarly, 76 per cent to 100 per cent damage to cotton and other crops was found on 314 acres in Sirsa, 3,078 acres in Fatehabad, 2,070 acres in Kurukshetra, 227 acres in Ambala , 453 acres in Kaithal and 82 acres in Yamunanagar.

Gurgaon, August 20
The power generation in Haryana will be increased by 1,950 MW during 2010, which is being observed as “Urja Varsh”.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while addressing a state-level function held to mark Rajiv Gandhi Akshay Urja Divas here today. He paid floral tributes to Rajiv Gandhi and recalled his contribution in the making of 21st century India.

Exhorting the people of the state to make the optimum use of “Akshay Urja”, Hooda said the state government was according top priority to development and harnessing the resources of Akshay Urja, such as hydel, biomass and solar energy, besides ensuring the optimum utilisation of energy.

Priority had also been accorded to Akshay Urja resources in the national action plan and national solar mission had also been set up in the state, he said, adding that under the mission, a scheme was being formulated to utilise Akshay Urja resources on a large scale.

“Under the first phase of the scheme, 22 autonomous power producers have been registered in Haryana to generate 20 MW of power from solar energy. Proposals regarding these have already been forwarded to the union government for approval,” he disclosed.

The Chief Minister asserted that the state government had formulated an attractive Akshay Urja policy to properly harness Akshay Urja resources in the state. With the implementation of this policy, private power producers have signed an MoU with the state government involving an investment of Rs 1,000 crore to generate 215 MW of power.

Hooda also honoured the village panchayats of Bhurthala (Rewari district) and Sunaria Khurd (Rohtak district) with cash awards of Rs 4 lakh and 3 lakh, respectively, while the third prize was shared by Sunaria Asadpur (Rewari district) and Balai (Palwal district) and they were given Rs 1 lakh each.

Earlier, Sumita Misra, Director, Renewable Energy Department, pointed out that the government had decided to develop Gurgaon as a “solar city”. Now, any person could install rooftop solar plant to generate 1 KW to 100 KW of power, she said, adding that the state government would also provide 30 per cent direct capital subsidy on these solar plants.

FARIDABAD: Hooda said his government was pushing for getting the Metro extended from the YMCA in Faridabad to Ballabgarh. He was speaking after unveiling a statue of Rajiv Gandhi in Rose Garden here.

Chandigarh, August 20
The hopes of early resumption of mining in Haryana suffered a setback today when the Supreme Court refused to allow the state government to withdraw its application seeking permission to start mining for a limited time without environment clearance and to pursue the matter before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

A similar application of the state government is pending before the High Court.

When the matter had come up for hearing before the High Court on August 13, the court had expressed its inability to decide it in view of the matter before the apex court. The state counsel had informed the court that the state government would withdraw its application from the Supreme Court with permission to pursue it before the High Court, which had adjourned the case to August 27. The Solicitor-General of India, appearing for the Haryana Government, raised the matter before the Forest Bench of the Supreme Court presided over by the Chief Justice of India today.

His prayer was opposed by counsel appearing for a petitioner, Deepak Kumar, who had challenged the order of the High Court by which the state was allowed to auction mining leases till February 28, 2010, without environment clearance.

The petitioner’s counsel informed the apex court about the state of the Ministry of Environment and Forests and various judgments of the Supreme Court, which had prohibited any mining activity without environment clearance as per the terms of the ministry’s notification of September 14, 2006. Incidentally, recently the High Court had allowed Punjab to continue mining without environment clearance for six months.

Declining permission to Haryana to withdraw its application, the Forest Bench of the apex court said the matter would be taken up along with other Haryana mining matters in the chronological order of the cases before it. The case pertaining to Haryana mining matters is listed at number four before the apex court.

Rohtak, August 20
An eight-year-old orphan girl, suffering from an acute mental disorder, has been denied admission to the state government-run Institute of Rehabilitation and Training for the mentally challenged here.

Unidentified and unable to speak, the girl was recovered from Gurgaon district recently and has been waiting to be shifted and lodged somewhere.

“The girl cannot even tell her name and has been temporarily lodged in a home run by the Bharat Vikas Sangh at the Srinagar colony here,” said Jaswanti, manager of the home. She said the victim had been shifted here on Tuesday after she was recovered from a place near Gurgaon. A village sarpanch saw her on the Pataudi road and informed the police. The police then contacted the Child Helpline run by Shakti Vahini, an NGO, which brought the girl to the home for rehabilitation.

Since the girl is unable to speak, the details about her parents and the place she belongs are not known.

She has a mental disorder of the rarest kind, according to the physician of the home. However, the rude shock came when the poor girl was denied admission to the government-run Institute of Rehabilitation and Training here. According to Deputy Commissioner PC Meena, she was denied admission as she did not meet the required “parameters”.

“Since we do not have the facilities to rehabilitate or treat such a child, she may be shifted to a pingalwara near Amritsar soon,” said the manager of the home.

Sirsa, August 20
Kusum Chaudhary, who contested the Ellenabad byelection as the Samast Bharatiya Party candidate in January, today alleged that the police had put her FIR against former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and others “under the carpet” and now she feared threat to her life.

Speaking to mediapersons in a local hotel today, Chaudhary threatened to sit on dharna outside the state Assembly in case no action was initiated in the next 10 days.

Chaudhary had lodged a complaint on January 17 that some INLD workers had assaulted her in the presence of Chautala and some other senior INLD leaders when she had gone to the town to address a rally.

The police had registered a case under Sections 323, 148, 149, 394, 506 and 509 of the IPC against several persons, including Chautala, former MP Tarlochan Singh and INLD state president Ashok Arora.

Kusum had later quit the SBP led by NRI Sudershan Agarwal after the bypoll and was seen on the dais of a public meeting addressed by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Tara Baba Kutia managed by Haryana minister Gopal Kanda’s family in Sirsa on April 3.

She, however, clarified that she had not joined the Congress or any other party and had come to Sirsa on April 3 to meet Hooda in connection with the action on her FIR. She alleged that the government was deliberately not taking any action on her FIR.

Meanwhile, SHO of the Ellenabad police station Jagdish Rai said despite investigations, the real culprits had not been found.

Sirsa, August 20
A large number of candidates, who came to Chaudhary Devi Lal University here to appear in the entrance examination for PhD programme, were left high and dry when they were informed that the test had been cancelled.

The university authorities, however, maintained that the test had been postponed for administrative reasons. The university was to conduct the entrance test for PhD programme in various subjects today. The candidates alleged that they had no intimation of the cancellation of the test and no fresh date had been announced.

“The postponement of the test was necessitated due to fresh guidelines of the UGC with regard to candidates, exempted from appearing in such a test. Now a fresh date will be announced after the academic council of the university takes a decision ,” said VC Dr KC Bhardwaj.

Chandigarh, August 20
The CBI Special Court of Darshan Singh today sentenced Rakesh Sharma, a science teacher in Jind, to rigorous imprisonment (RI) of two years for indulging in cheating and corruption.

The court has held Rakesh guilty under Sections 420, 468 and 471 of the IPC and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. During his posting as assistant project coordinator in Jind during 1999-2000, Rakesh fraudulently endorsed four bills amounting to Rs 72,450 purported to have been raised by Shiv Sahara Printers.

He was working as assistant project coordinator under the Haryana Prathmik Shiksha Pariyojana Parishad. The bills were raised for printing posters and stickers. However, the firm denied having undertaken the work. The Supreme Court had marked an inquiry into the case.