Chandigarh, December 13
The government should not acquire land for private agencies. Instead, all such parties should be asked to negotiate with the land owners.

However, if the government finds itself stuck, the least it can do is to offer a comprehensive package to the farmers whose land is being acquired.

This was stated by the chairman of the All-India Kisan Khet-Mazdoor Congress, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, here today.

Addressing a press conference, he said the package should not only include a small plot for the farmer to set up poultry business or the like, but should include a clause for quality education of his wards and a government job, among other benefits.

“In fact, keeping the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s suggestion in mind, the government should not acquire agricultural land wherever it can be avoided,” he said.

Surjewala also urged the government to consider certain amendments in its proposed loan relief scheme for farmers.

He said under the scheme, a relief of three per cent would be offered on the seven per cent rate of interest charged by cooperative banks.

The government plans to introduce the scheme in 2010-11. “There is no point announcing the scheme retrospectively since the farmer is already through with taking loans for sowing his crop. The government should work out a plan under which all such schemes are announced well before the sowing season,” he said. Such measures should be announced at least six months before the scheme is opened to enable its proper utilisation.

Surjewala suggested that this relief, meant only for farmers who have availed themselves of loans from cooperative banks, should be extended to loanee farmers of private banks as also other nationalised banks.

Urging the government to raise the loan limit of Rs 10,000 per acre to Rs 50,000 per acre given under the Krishi Card Scheme, Surjewala said the upper limit of Rs 1 lakh credit was a pittance and required a relook.

“This amount is too little. To benefit the farmer, the government should consider raising the upper limit for loan to Rs 5 lakh.

“ would help if the landless farmers, too, get loans for marriages of their daughters or for treatment of illness at a nominal two per cent rate of interest,” he maintained.

He advocated an incentive of Rs 1 lakh to those organising simple marriages, without tents and caterers. Taking up the cause of those with small land-holdings unviable for agriculture, Surjewala suggested that all such farmers be eligible for loan at a four per cent interest rate. Stating that the health of women and children was a cause of concern given the latest UNICEF report highlighting malnutrition among them, Surjewala said the government should gift a buffalo to the landless and marginal landowners.

“Ninety per cent children and women in Haryana are anaemic and 50 per cent children underweight at the time of birth, resulting in their stunted growth. The government should give serious thought to this issue,” he emphasised.

Panipat, December 13
Law seems to have failed to catch up with an erring tehsildar who, in connivance with a sarpanch and two panches, tried to grab 1,600 kanals of panchayat land in Manana village in this district early this year.

Nine months back, the Chief Secretary, after receiving a report from the district administration, had recommended registration of an FIR against Raj Kumar, the then tehsildar of Samalkha.

In the report prepared by the ADC, it had been found that the tehsildar had connived to get 1,600 kanals of village land registered in the names of over 226 persons to sell the prime land and make money. Sarpanch Bhim Singh and panches Brahm Dutta and Mohar Singh were booked by the police on a complaint filed by the DDPO, but no action was taken against the tehsildar as the office of the Finance Commissioner, Revenue, did not grant permission for registration of a case against him. It simply said the matter was under consideration.

The matter came to light when villagers filed a detailed complaint with the DC in March this year, alleging that panchayat land had been fraudulently registered in the names of some villagers. The DC asked the Additional DC to look into the matter.

The ADC in his report concluded that gross violation had been committed in registering panchayat land in the names of 226 persons, following which an FIR was registered against the sarpanch and the two panches.

The matter against tehsildar Raj Kumar was referred to the office of the Financial Commissioner, Revenue.

Manana resident Rajinder Rathi said for the past many years the 1,600 kanals of village land was leased out by the panchayat to farmers. However, in January this year, the sarpanch and the two panches got the land registered in the names of 226 residents.

Rathi said it was beyond his comprehension that even though the CM had ordered a criminal cases against revenue officials working in connivance with the land mafia to grab village common land, no action was being taken against this official. In fact. he enjoyed the patronage of higher officials, he alleged.

Sirsa, December 13
It took the Haryana government 22 long years to implement the University Grant Commission’s guidelines for setting up the state-level council of higher education. And even when the same has been set up, it does not conform to the UGC guidelines, being heavily loaded with bureaucrats and politicians.

The government recently constituted the State Higher Education Council (SHEC) headed by the the Chief Minister, a decision that invited the criticism of teachers’ bodies of several universities.

“The Andhra Pradesh Council for Higher Education was set up in May 1988, while the State Higher Education Councils of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala were set up in 1992, 1994, 1995 and 2007, respectively,” said Dr Mahabir Jaglan, Associate Professor, Kurukshetra University.

The setting up of the councils is part of the UGC guidelines issued on January 21, 1988, pursuant to the National Education Policy- 1986. The guidelines, a copy of which is with the Tribune, recommends that “state-level planning and coordination of higher education will be done through Councils of Higher Education.

The UGC and these councils will develop coordinative methods to keep a watch on standards.” Para 3.0 of the guidelines deal with the composition of these councils It says these are to be formed by the state legislature and the chairman is to hold office for five years. All other members are to hold the office for three years. Para 4.0 of the guidelines with regard to the terms and conditions of service of the chairman and members says: “The office of the chairman shall be a salaried one. The salary shall not be less than that of a VC of a University. A person who has not attained the age of 65 years shall be eligible for appointment.”

But the State Higher Education Council constituted by Haryana has the Chief Minister as chairman, the Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal as vice-chairperson and Chief Parliamentary Secretary (Education) as member. As for the members, the guidelines say that not less than two and not more than four members should be from those who have obtained high academic distinction in teaching, medicine, engineering, agriculture sciences, and law or are industrialists or educationists of high repute.

It is further provided that not more than two VCs and two teachers of universities/colleges shall be included in the council.

The council should also have an officer of the UGC not below the rank of Joint Secretary, besides Secretary (Education) and Secretary (Finance) as ex-officio members. The council set up by Haryana has seven Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretaries, eight VCs and four directors as members, besides two principals of government colleges.

Fatehabad, December 13
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) will set up an international-level educational hub in Fatehabad.

The committee is already running Guru Tegh Bahadur Public School here and its second venture - Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology - is expected to start functioning from the coming academic session.

DSGMC president Paramjit Singh Sarna, who was here today to review the progress of the proposed institute, revealed that the DSGMC had 240 acres near Bighar, 5 km from here, and the committee had proposed to set up an educational hub with coordination of world-class universities here.

Dr Upinder Kaur Randhawa, Director of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Institute of Technology, Delhi, who is looking after the progress of the proposed institute here, said initially the engineering college would have an intake of 240 students at the undergraduate level and at later stages, MCA, MBA and MTech would also be added.

Sarna said an international-standard “Institute of Gurmat Studies” (institute for preaching Sikhism) would be set up here.

The first educational institute of the DSGMC, a school, was founded here by late Gurcharan Singh Tohra 14 years ago. The institutes, Sarna said, would be run purely for the benefit of society.

Replying to a question on the demand of separate gurdwara prabandhak committee for Haryana, the DSGMC chief said the demand of the Sikhs from the state was justified.

“Sikh politics begin from gurdwaras and hence whenever there were elections for Parliament or the state Assembly, political parties in Haryana looked directly upon Amritsar for votes and never bothered about knowing the aspirations of Haryana Sikhs,” Sarna maintained.

He said unless Sikhs in Haryana had control on gurdwaras situated in their state, they would not have any political say in the state politics.

Sarna praised the efforts of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in this direction and said though he was interested in separate SGPC for Sikhs in the state, his efforts had been stalled by the intervention of those having hold over the SGPC.

He claimed that ever since Sikhs in Delhi got their own gurdwara management committee, the functioning of gurdwaras had improved considerably. He further claimed that the DSGMC enjoyed more credibility than the SGPC among Sikhs settled in India or other countries.

Rohtak, December 13
The state has emerged as a front-runner in expansion of the educational infrastructure and the related facilities for providing professional and specialised training. As many as 502 institutions offering technical and professional education have come up in the state in the past five and a half years.

This was stated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda while addressing the locals’ grievances at his residence here today.

Stating that his government had unleashed a comprehensive policy on education, he said it was perhaps for the first time that over 500 educational institutions, including 149 engineering colleges, 159 management (MBA) institutions, 56 MCA (Masters in Computers Applications) colleges, 32 pharmacy colleges and 163 polytechnics, had been set up in the state during such a short period.

Claiming that setting up colleges and universities was not the only aim of the government, the focus was to ensure quality education of national and international standards.

With 21 universities and 664 colleges, the total seats for the students in technical and professional institutions have gone over 1.19 lakh at present, he added.

Regarding the agriculture sector, the Chief Minister revealed that he had been nominated as the Chairperson of the working group of the Chief Ministers of northern India to look into the issues concerning farmers and agriculture.

He said the state government has decided to set up a “kisan aayog” to monitor and coordinate various programmes and policies of the union and the state government regarding farming. He said the state government had earmarked a budget of Rs 1,500 crore to upgrade health facilities in the state.

Kurukshetra, December 13
The annual state-level five-day-long Geeta Jayanti Samaroh kicked off on a colourful note with Governor Jagannath Pahadia inaugurating the “arts and craft mela” at Brahma Sarovar here today.

The Governor and his wife Shanti Devi were welcomed in a traditional manner by cultural troupes from different parts of the state.

An exhibition depicting developmental activities of the state was also inaugurated by the Governor. Chief Minister BS Hooda will preside over the concluding function on December 17.

A series of activities like shloka recital, recital of bhajans, discourses on Bhagavad Gita and book exhibitions will be organised on the occasion.

The festival is being organised by the Kurukshetra Development Board, Haryana Tourism Department, District Administration, North Zone Cultural Centre, Patiala, and Information and Public Relations Department, Haryana.

Dedicated to the birth of Srimad Bhagavad Gita, the festival is celebrated with immense devotion and dedication.

Sonepat, December 13
Four persons, including three casual labourers and a contractor, were killed on the spot after inhaling poisonous gas in the sewer lines of the Haryana State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) here today.

The bodies of contractor Randhir of Qumaspur village, Vijay of Deepalpur, Monu of Bahalgarh and Krishan of Naultha village in Panipat district, were brought to the Civil Hospital here.

The labourers were working on draining out accumulated water in an industrial plot through sewer lines. A pipe fell into a sewer line.

Vijay entered the manhole to recover it. He was followed by Monu. When the two did not return, Krishan went in search of his colleagues.

He too did not return. Perturbed, contractor Randhir decided to look for them but he also disappeared intothe manhole. Another labourer raised the alarm.

Officers of the HSIIDC and a fire brigade rushed to the site and the victims were brought out of the sewer line. They were declared ‘brought dead’ by doctors at the Civil Hospital. Rai MLA Jaitirth and officers of the administration rushed to the hospital and consoled the families of the victims, assuring every possible help.

Expressing shock, DC Ajit Joshi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased by the state government.

Panipat, December 13
Police investigations into the cricket betting racket seems to have hit a roadblock with the bookies having gone underground and the five accused, arrested by the police, out on bail.

The district police last Thursday had busted a gang allegedly involved in betting on international cricket matches. According to sources in the police, after the police zeroed in on the gang, a number of bookies spread across the region went underground.

As many as 68 mobile phones were recovered from the gang members during the raid. The police department is now trying to find out more details from these phones used by the accused to keep the bookies updated on the changing betting rates. The gang would place these phones in front of a pair of speakers that were connected to a microphone and any change in rates was directly conveyed to the bookies using this system.

The investigators believe that there could be as many bookies in the region as the 68 mobile phones.

District police chief Pankaj Nain said police teams were tracking the bookies. SHO Naresh Ahlawat maintained that more revelations were likely to be made soon. He said a big breakthrough was expected soon.

Five persons, including brothers Sandeep and Gulshan, Mukesh Kumar, Gurmail Singh and Ajay were arrested.

Panipat, December 13
Even as efforts are being made to increase power availability in the state, the report by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) says the state has not been able to meet the thermal power generation target.

Haryana Power Generation Company Limited (HPGCL) could achieve only 89.2 per cent of the assigned generation target for the period - April to November - in the current financial year, whereas, the country as a whole achieved a target of 96 per cent.

The report stated that the generation target of the state for the first eight months was 11,177 million units, while the actual generation remained 9,968 million units. Thus, there was a shortage of 1,209 million units.

According to sources, the generation targets are worked out in consultation with the power utilities taking into account their previous performance and scheduled maintenance.

As per the report that was released here recently, the 1,360 MW Panipat thermal plant generated 6,001 million units against a target of 6,552 million units, registering a shortfall of 551 million units.

The report stated that the shortfall was due to outages of unit 1 and 4 along with unscheduled preventive maintenance of unit 7.

In case of 600 MW Yamunanagar thermal plant, the generation during the said time period was 2,542 million units against a target of 2,773 million units.

Technical snag in one of the units, which operated at 200 MW instead of 300 MW, is said to behind the shortfall.

The 1,200 MW Khedar thermal plant, which was supposed to generate 1,852 million units, could produce only 1,426 million units due to outages in its units.

The report also stated that the total thermal generation in the country as a whole achieved a growth of 3.19 per cent due to 7 per cent growth in gas-based generation, but it fell short of target by 4 per cent.

Karnal, December 13
The much-hyped “Lakhtakia” Nano car of Tata may not have created a stir.

Final year mechanical engineering students of Doon Valley Institute of Engineering and Technology here claim to have designed and developed a prototype of the “Lakhtakia” Nano diesel car.

The innovation is the outcome of the work done by a team of six students as part of project work. The car is likely to cost a mere Rs 50,000, half the price of Tata’s Nano.

Aditya Prakash, Sanjay Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Anuj Yadav, Gaurav Jain and Ashwani Kumar worked on the project for more than six months.

They claim that the car can run perfectly well at a speed of 80 km per hour and bear a load of eight quintals. The most attractive feature is its fuel efficiency at 30 km per litre of diesel.

The Chairman of the institution, Naresh Kumar, Director, GS Sharma and finance secretary Mohit Aggarwal, who saw a demonstration of the “People’s diesel car model,” congratulated the students and project guide Assistant Prof Ravinder Chauhan for the rare feat.

The students said that there was scope for further improvement in the model to further cut down costs and make it more fuel-efficient.

Jhajjar, December 13
On the recommendation of MP Deepender Hooda, a Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN), Sandeep Kumar, was placed under suspension with immediate effect by the department here today.

Residents of various villages of the Badli Assembly constituency here had complained to the MP that the SDO had not been paying any heed to the public grievances.

The MP also visited the villages of the constituency today and reiterated that the government was for the people, by the people and of the people and he would not tolerate any negligence on the part of any official in discharging his duties.

The MP directed officials of the Irrigation Department to ensure water at every tail end so that adequate water reached the fields of all farmers.

He also directed them to carry out remodeling of Sikandarpur minor, besides correcting its level for smooth flow of water in it.

“With the completion of the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway, the area of Badli-Jhajjar will achieve new dimensions in the development as a major portion of the area falls under this expressway,” said Hooda.

Earlier, the MP laid the foundation stone of Rajiv Gandhi Rural Mini Sports Stadium at Patauda village to be built at a cost of Rs 35 lakh.

He also inaugurated a veterinary hospital built at a cost of Rs 22 lakh in the village and laid the foundation stone of anganwari centres at Amadalpur and Koka village to be built at a cost of Rs 5 lakh each.

Ambala, December 13
Additional Session Judge, Ambala, Aradhna Sahni sentenced three persons, including a woman, to life imprisonment for murdering Bhag Singh, a resident of Ambala City, here today.

According to the prosecution, Bhag Singh was an employee in Ambala City municipal council. His son Satbir Singh used to run a taxi. On October 4, 2008, three persons hired his son’s taxi to a restaurant located on the Ambala-Naraingarh road. Bhag Singh told his son that he would drop the passengers.

When Bhag Singh did not return till late evening, his son lodged a complaint. However, Bhag Singh’s body was found in the bushes close to the restaurant. — OC