Chandigarh, September 1
Haryana’s land acquisition policy may have earned kudos from Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, but it has failed to impress the Opposition in Haryana which is gearing up to corner the government for “harassing farmers”.

The Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), with its increased strength in this Vidhan Sabha, and the Haryana Janhit Congress of Kuldeep Bishnoi have decided to bring an adjournment motion and calling attention motion this Vidhan Sabha session which begins on September 3. The Bharatiya Janata Party, too, has decided to raise the issue vociferously and “expose” the government.

Said INLD secretary general and Dabwali MLA, Ajay Singh Chautala: “We will bring adjournment motions not only on the many land scandals in the state but also the complete collapse of law and order.”

A resolution before by three party MLAs, stating that the House should recommend to the state government to approach the Central Government for necessary amendments in the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, prohibiting same gotra marriages, was already pending with the Seaker, Chautala said.

The meeting of the INLD’s Legislature Party was slated for September 3 during which the party strategy would be decided.

Bishnoi, who made his maiden appearance in the House for the oath ceremony, staying away during the Budget session, also seems in a fiery mood.

“During the Budget session, I showed my strength outside the House by holding a demonstration ... This time, I will show my mettle in the House,” he declared.

Bishnoi said he had sent a calling attention motion to bar the five MLAs who had “deserted” him to join the Congress from sitting in the House during the proceedings.

“The matter is with the Speaker as also in the High Court. The five legislators cannot be allowed inside the House.

“Besides, I’m initiating adjournment motions on the heavy loss to crops and property in the floods and acquisition of farmers’ land,” he said.

The BJP president, Kishan Pal Gurjar, said his party, while putting the government on the mat for its land acquisition policy, would raise issues of public interest, from flood relief to power pangs.

The Congress, meanwhile, is unperturbed and confident of handling the Opposition in the House. 

New Delhi, September 1
The Haryana government plans to amend its land acquisition policy, enhancing the “floor rates” on which the base price of the land to be acquired is determined.

The existing policy had clauses for liberal compensation at the market rate, rehabilitation of oustees, and an annuity scheme for 33 years, said Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today.

He said the policy was being amended for the betterment of the farmers. "The floor rates in the state are among the highest, but I might revise these again,” he said.

Answering a query on the reported resistance by farmers to part with their land for the upcoming nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur village in Fatehabad, Hooda said his government was looking into the matter if they were genuine farmers or political activists.

Haryana, he said, had attracted investment worth Rs 53,000 crore in the past five years while investment worth Rs 1 lakh crore was in the pipeline. Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the past five years of the Congress government had increased to Rs 9,277 crore.

The Chief Minister said before his government came to power, the Annual Plan Budget of the state was about Rs 2,200 crore. The Planning Commission had sanctioned a Budget of Rs 18,260 crore for the financial year 2010-11. Industrial growth had picked up and Haryana had the second-highest per capita income at Rs 77,878 after Goa, he added. 

Chandigarh, September 1
HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi’s move to get the disqualification of five MLAs of his party expedited has backfired on him.

The HJC had won six seats in the 2009 assembly elections. However, shortly after Bhupinder Singh Hooda took over as Chief Minister for the second time, five of the six HJC legislators deserted Bishnoi and “merged” with the Congress, which could win only 40 seats in the elections, six short of absolute majority.

The “merger” raised the Congress strength in the House of 90 to 45.

With the support of seven Independents and a lone BSP MLA, the ruling party now enjoys the support of 53 legislators.

Bishnoi moved petitions seeking disqualification of the five MLAs before Speaker HS Chatha.

The main opposition party, the INLD, moved separate petitions before Chatha, seeking similar relief. While the quasi-judicial proceedings were still pending with the Speaker, Bishnoi moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court, challenging among other things, the “merger” of the HJC legislators. Bishnoi also wanted the court to direct the Speaker to expedite the decision on his petitions. The High Court issued notices to respondents, including Chatha.

Chatha has now adjourned hearing sine die on all petitions seeking disqualification of the former HJC legislators under defection law saying since the issue is before the High Court, it will not be proper to continue the hearings. He wants the judicial verdict to be out first.

The High Court today gave six weeks to the respondents to file their replies to Bishnoi’s petition. Legal experts feel that it would take considerable time before the High Court pronounces its verdict on Bishnoi’s petition.

This will certainly not help Bishnoi’s cause. The experts feel that in view of a number of Supreme Court judgements, the courts have limited jurisdicyion in the matters of disqualition under the anti-defection law before a presiding officer pronounces his verdict.

Sirsa, September 1
Raising private bundhs on the Ghaggar river will henceforth invite prosecution. Using his powers under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), District Magistrate CG Rajini Kaanthan has banned private bundhs on the river that resulted in several villages being inundated this monsoon.

Farmers who have set up such bundhs have been directed to remove these with immediate effect.

The irrigation department has constructed embankments on both sides of the Ghaggar, leaving 3 to 5 acres of land on both sides of the main creek to allow free flow of the river.

However, the farmers whose land fall between the river and the embankments, have constructed their own bundhs on the Ghaggar, thereby constricting the creek.

This increased the intensity of the current, resulting in breaches. The water gushing from the breaches led to inundation of thousands of acres in several villages along the Ghaggar.

Panchkula, September 1
In order to promoting tourism in the state, the Tourism Department is planning to set up an amusement park in Rohtak with public-private participation.

Announcing this here today, Commissioner, Haryana Tourism, Maha Singh said the draft proposal was being prepared, which would further be submitted to the state government for its approval.

He was in the city to participate in a function organised by the Haryana Tourism Department at Red Bishop to mark the 37th Haryana Tourism Day.

He said the department was also planning to hold entertainment programmes, including quiz competitions and cultural programmes, at tourism spots in the state.

Commenting on the preparations for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), Maha Singh said they had already set up two camps in Gurgaon and Surajkund for participants.

He said besides this they would provide 800 rooms out of which 250 rooms were in the national capital region and added that these would provide three-star facilities to the participants.

He further said the department would also promote circuit tourism and in the first phase Pinjore, Kurukshetra and Panipat would be connected and about 10 to 20 small or medium tourist destinations would be covered.

He said for this, the department would spend about Rs 50 crore which would be provided by the central government and added that the second phase would cover Pinjore, Yamunanagar and Paonta Sahib in Himachal Pradesh. 

Sirsa/Fatehabad, September 1
Fatehabad and Sirsa districts have been expecting a rich harvest of Basmati varieties of paddy this year.

Large-scale re-plantation of Basmati varieties by flood-hit farmers has increased the area under cultivation of the crop considerably in the two districts.

According to sources in the Agriculture Department, paddy has been planted on over 80,000 hectares in Fatehabad district this year, of which more than 60 per cent counts for different varieties of Basmati.

In Sirsa, paddy has been planted on 55,000 hectares, out of which more than 40,000 hectares have Basmati crop.

While both in Sirsa and Fatehabad, the cultivation of paddy is almost equal to the target set by the agriculture authorities, the special feature this year is that Basmati varieties exceed the Parmal varieties. Normally, it is the other way round in this part of the state.

“We had transplanted Parmal variety of paddy on our lands, which got completely destroyed when floods inundated our crops in the second week of July. However, as soon as floodwaters receded, we brought Pusa Basmati (PB-1) variety of saplings from Punjab and transplanted on our fields. If things go well, we hope to get good returns from our crops and also wish to recover the losses suffered due to floods,” said Gurjant Singh, a farmer from Firozabad in Sirsa.

Sukhdev Singh, a farmer from Sadhanwas in Fatehabad, said he had transplanted a late variety of Basmati on over 35 acres taken on rent from another farmers.

If the present conditions continued and Ghaggar did not inundate the fields again, it would be a bumper crop this year, he added. However, the farmers are keeping their fingers crossed about the rates they are likely to get for their crops.

“The prices of Basmati have always fluctuated depending upon the export policies of the government and the crop’s demand in other countries,” said a trader in the grain market in Sirsa.

Kurukshetra, September 1
The students of MTech (2009-11 batch) of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, demanding immediate withdrawal of fee hike, sat on a dharna in front of their institute here today.

The protesting students, in a letter addressed to the President, said they took admission in June 2009 and at that time the tuition fee mentioned in their prospectus was Rs 15,000 per annum. Now, they have been asked to deposit the tuition fee of Rs 35,000 per annum.

The reason for the above said fee hike as told by the institute is the notice issued by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD). “The notice was issued to the institute after our admission and nothing was mentioned in the prospectus about the revision of the fee during the course (June 2009 to June 2011) of MTech. Therefore, we are not supposed to deposit the new fee that was mentioned in the notice issued by the MHRD,” they argued.

They further pleaded that now at this stage most of the students were not in a position to deposit such a big amount. In this regard, they had a lot of conversations since last year (November 2009 to July 2010) with the director and the BOGs (Board of Governors) of the institute. But nothing had been done so far, they added. Meanwhile, they have requested the President to intervene into the matter and save them from the alleged harassment.

Rewari: Irate students of Bhateda, Dehlawas and Roliawas villages blocked traffic on the Rewari-Mahendergarh road at the Bhateda village bus stand near here on Wednesday. They rued non-stoppage of the Haryana Roadways buses at the said bus stand. The blockade was lifted after an hour at persuasion of the General Manager (Roadways). A roadways employee would be posted for the purpose, he added.

Sirsa, September 1
The health authorities have issued a notice to the local depot of the Haryana Roadways after larvae of anopheles and aedes mosquitoes responsible for the spread of malaria and dengue were detected in water allowed to stagnate in used tyres dumped carelessly in the depot.

In the notice served on August 30, microbiologist Sheel Kaushik, who also holds the charge of Deputy Civil Surgeon (vector-borne diseases), had asked the roadways authorities to remove the conditions conducive to the breeding of mosquitoes with immediate effect.

He warned that action under Section 214 of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973, would be initiated against them in case they failed to do so.

The health authorities have recently initiated a survey in the district to find out the premises where mosquitoes are finding conditions suitable for breeding due to stagnant water.

Lajpat Rai, general manager of the Haryana Roadways, Sirsa depot, however, expressed ignorance about the serving of any such notice.

He further added that the unused tyres were auctioned yesterday for their disposal. 

Sirsa, September 1
Additional Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Chaudhary today completed inquiry into the Kalanwali incident, in which over 100 girls were taken ill after being given Vitamin A drops by the health authorities.

Though she will submit the report only after getting results of samples sent for testing in a private laboratory in Delhi, she said, prima facie, it appeared to be a case of complication due to overdose of medicine.

Chaudhary, accompanied by local pediatrician Dr Ashish Khurana and district drugs control officer Rajnish Dhaliwal, today visited Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Kalanwali town, where 148 schoolgirls were administered Vitamin A drops under the school health programme on Friday. The ADC recorded statements of school principal Sukhwinder Kaur, leader of the health team Dr Mamta Gupta, her team members, an ANM and multipurpose health workers.

She also spoke to some of the girls of Classes VI, VII and VIII, who had taken drops on that day and met their parents. “After speaking to all concerned, prima facie, it appears to be a case of administration of overdose of Vitamin A,” the ADC said.

“Only those girls, who were made to sip the medicine directly from the bottles, have taken ill, while those who were given with a measure have not complained of any complication,” she added. She, however, said it would be premature to reach any conclusion and added that the report of the samples sent by the authorities to a private laboratory would come within a day.

However, civil surgeon Dr OP Hooda said workers of his department, who had gone to Delhi with the samples, had returned empty handed as the charges demanded by the laboratory were “prohibitive” and the private labs were seeking long time for testing.

“I sent a special messenger to Delhi with two samples of the medicine and Rs 10,000 in cash. However, the laboratory demanded Rs 75,000 per sample for such tests and needed 45 days for giving their reports,” Dr Hooda maintained. He said it was of no use for them as by that time even the government laboratory would give its report.

Meanwhile, 14 girls are still admitted in the local general hospital with complications of the drug administration.

Kaithal, September 1
Additional District and Sessions Judge AK Shori today delivered a record 148 judgments in a day. The earlier record of 111 judgements was held by an Andhra Pradesh civil judge. Though the judge refused to talk to mediapersons, sources said of the cases decided by him today, 137 pertained to land acquisition.

Of the references made by the state government to the court, 49 were concerning Mundri village, 48 Geong, 16 Chhabba, 18 Sector 18 of Kaithal, five Deeg village and 
one Balu.

Significantly, these references were made against different awards and separate judgments pronounced in each case. 

Chandigarh, September 1
Taking up a petition filed by MLA-cum-president of Haryana Janhit Congress Kuldeep Bishnoi, Justice Permod Kohli of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today granted six weeks’ time for filing a reply to Haryana Vidhan Sabha and five Haryana MLAs who left the HJC to join the Congress after the assembly elections in 2009.

Bishnoi is seeking disqualification of all five MLAs from the membership of Vidhan Sabha under the 10th Scheduled of the Constitution, popularly known as anti-defection law. Justice Kohli fixed October 14 as the next date for arguments in the case.

The Speaker was represented by Additional Solicitor-General of India Mohan Jain, while the five MLAs were represented by Punjab’s former advocate-general Harbhagwan Singh. The petitioner was represented by senior advocate-cum-former MP Satya Pal Jain along with Davesh Moudgil and Dheeraj Jain. Counsel for the respondents were asked to give in advance a copy of their replies to the counsel for the petitioner before filing it in the High Court.

Bishnoi had filed five petitions seeking the disqualification of these MLAs before the Speaker on December 9, 2009.

He later moved the High Court, alleging Speaker HS Chatha was intentionally delaying the proceedings. He said during the past eight months, he was not even given copies of the replies filed by the five legislators.

Chandigarh, September 1
Making false complaints against his colleague, an XEN, has landed an executive engineer of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UBVN) in the dock. After investigations into the matter, the Inspector-General, CID, Haryana has directed that action as per law be initiated against the complainant.

The CID had written to the UHBVN authorities in this regard last week, asking them to keep it apprised of the action being initiated.

A large number of complaints were received against Kabool Singh, XEN (civil), from one Krishan Lal, a resident of Kurukshetra, alleging corruption and other malpractices.

Investigations by the CID revealed that the allegations were baseless as the issues mentioned in the complaints were dealt by the higher authorities than the XEN. Besides, no person named as Krishan Lal was residing at the address given in the complaints, which turned out to be a plot on which construction was going on.

The complaints were sent for examination to the Forensic Science Laboratory at Madhuban where handwriting samples were analysed and the culprit was nailed. These complaints were also investigated by the UHBVN and no substance was found in them. 

Hisar, September 1
The police yesterday arrested one more accused in connection with the violence against Dalits of Mirchpur village, near here, on April 21 in which a teenaged polio-stricken girl and her father were killed when a mob set 18 houses belonging to the Dalits on fire.

The arrested was identified as Balwan, son of Zile Singh. The arrest comes in the wake of the apex court’s snub to the government for its failure to arrest all accused in the case.

The police has constituted 10 teams to arrest the remaining accused. Additional Superintendent of Police Pankaj Nain has been asked to camp in the village and lead these teams.

Over the past few days, the police has conducted raids at several places in and around Mirchpur, its appeal to the villagers to help nab the accused having had no effect.So far 28 persons have been charge-sheeted in the case.

As directed by the apex court, the administration is preparing a list of relief works to help the affected Dalit families. Jobs have been provided to the sons of the man killed in the violence and heavy compensation paid to the affected families.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi had visited the village after 
the arson to meet the aggrieved families and had promised succour.