Karnal, February 4
Dr Gorakh Singh, Commissioner (Horticulture), Union Agriculture Ministry, today stressed the need to adopt the latest farm techniques in horticulture to increase production as well as productivity, and said India had the potential to surpass China in this sector.

Inaugurating a two-day seminar-cum-exhibition organised by Shalaroo (Karnal) centre of the National Horticulture Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), the commisioner said a large number of schemes had been formulated to boost vegetable and fruit production, and subsidy was being provided to farmers having agricultural land close to big cities to motivate them to grow vegetables. He said there was a need to increase the production of fruit and vegetables to meet the domestic demand and to maintain a sustainable price level.

About 600 farmers, from states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Assam, Bihar, Delhi and Haryana, are participating in the seminar focusing on the diversification of horticulture and developing new varieties of vegetables.

Dr RP Gupta, Director, NHRDF, Maharashtra, and Dr Rajneesh Mishra, Deputy Director, NHRDF, Karnal, apprised farmers of the new varieties of onion developed by the research centres.

The farmers were informed that the “Dark red” variety of onion and garlic had been developed for Rabi sowing, and that several other varieties of garlic were being developed.

Dr AK Srivastav, Director, NDRI, and Dr DK Sharma, Director, CSSRI, also attended the seminar. 

Chandigarh, February 4
The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order cancelling the sale of a 30-acre piece of land in Gurgaon and to demolish all construction on it, has put a question mark on the future of the DLF-sponsored Silokhra IT and IT-enabled Services SEZ, where many MNCs have commenced business.

The 30-acre piece of land has a long legal history. It was part of 210 acres, which the government sought to acquire in 1989 by invoking Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act for a residential and commercial sector. East India Hotel Limited (EIH) owned this piece of land. In 1984 the company got a licence for setting up a hospital and a management training institute on about 18 acres. Before the construction could start, acquisition proceedings were initiated.

Though initially the government intended to acquire 210 acres, when Section 6 was invoked in 1990, it was only qua 169 acres. About 41 acres was released by the then Janata Dal government. Interestingly, the award under Section 9 was passed in 1992-only qua 8.64 acres out of the 210 acres to be acquired initially. The remaining land was either released by the Bhajan Lal government or the acquisition proceedings were challenged before the High Court. The meagre eight acres at its disposal forced the government to drop its plan of setting up a residential and commercial sector on the land.

Thirtyfour writs were filed in the 1990s challenging the acquisition proceedings. Staying the dispossession, the HC admitted the writ petitions. While the petition of East India Hotel was disposed of in 2000, the remaining petitions were decided in January 2010 when the court quashed the acquisition proceedings.

In September, 1995, the Bhajan Lal government wrote to East India Hotel that its land could be released from the acquisition proceedings on certain conditions, which included that the company would seek the prior approval of the government if it wanted to sell the land and that it would take change of land use (CLU) permission before starting construction.

The company agreed to the conditions, leading to a written pact between the government and the company in 1997 when Bansi Lal was the CM. After the East India Hotel petition was disposed of in 2000, the company applied for CLU, which was rejected in June, 2001. The appeal was also rejected.

Having failed to obtain the requisite CLU, the company sought the government’s permission for sale of the land. The Legal Remembrancer (LR) advised the government to grant the permission on certain conditions.

After the government granted permission to the company in 2008, it sold the land to the DLF. Meanwhile, an SEZ was sanctioned under the Haryana SEZ Act on this piece of land. Now the HC has held that the release of land to East India Hotel by way of a compromise signed on October 13, 1997 “was fraudulent”. 

Fatehabad, February 4
One more Gorakhpur farmer agitating against the acquisition of land for the proposed nuclear power plant died late last night.

Ram Kumar (65) was taken ill while on a dharna in extreme cold on January 2. He returned to the protest site after he felt better. His condition deteriorated again on January 22 and was shifted to the General Hospital here, said Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti.

He was discharged from the hospital on January 23. He died at his home last night. Angry farmers raised anti-government slogans at the dharna site this morning and reiterated their resolve not to yield an inch of their land for the nuclear plant.

Earlier, Bhagu Ram had died on December 30 when he was taken ill while on a dharna in the chilly weather.

The death had triggered strong protests and the farmers had blocked the national highway for over two days.

The dharna by the Gorakhpur farmers entered its 174th day today. Senior engineers of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) were to hold a meeting with the farmers today to “dispel misgivings”, but the authorities postponed the meeting.

Meanwhile, MP Ashok Tanwar, who was in Gorakhpur in connection with a sports function, claimed that a majority of farmers were ready to surrender their land provided they got good compensation.

Out of the over 1,300 acres of land sought to be acquired for the nuclear plant, owners of 475 acres are not willing to part with their land at any cost. Another group with nearly 260 acres was against the acquisition, but could be coaxed into parting with the land for a handsome compensation.

The farmers ready to part with their land hold a little over 600 acres but nearly 175 acres of their land is prone to water-logging, say sources.

These farmers also demand a compensation of Rs 50 lakh per acre, job for a member of each affected family, opening of the main gate of the plant towards the village and opening of an educational institution in the village.

Chandigarh, February 4
Eleven years after an advertisement appeared for filling 67 posts of HCS (Executive Branch) and allied services, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked Justice BN Agrawal, who retired as a Judge from the Supreme Court, to look into the allegations, including those of favouritism, corruption and nepotism.

Enrolled as an advocate in January 1966, Justice Agrawal mostly took up civil and constitutional cases in the High Court at Patna, and was elevated to the Supreme Court of India in October 2000. Justice Agrawal retired in October 2009.

He was asked to render his services for the probe after Delhi High Court’s former Chief Justice AP Shah informed the High Court of his non-availability to carry out the probe.

As the matter came up for resumed hearing, the Division Bench of acting Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Augustine George Masih was informed about Justice Shah’s non-availability.

The information once again saw prayer being made for probe into the selections by the Central Bureau of Investigation by the petitioners and others. But, the request did not find favour with the Bench.

Asking the High Court registry to seek Justice Agrawal’s consent, the Bench also asked the counsel for the parties to come up with other names, in case the former judge, too, was unavailable.

Haryana’s former MLA Karan Singh Dalal and two candidates had initially brought the matter to the High Court’s notice through Haryana’s former Advocate-General Mohan Jain, now Additional Solicitor-General of India in Delhi.

So far, the probe into the selections carried out in 2001, 2003 and 2004 has placed the examiners in the dock. The probe has found “the examiners re-checked the answersheets on their own, whereas there are no such rules”

The forensic report, too, has indicated irregularities in checking of the answersheets.

Hisar, February 4
The Town and Country Planning Department has declared the farmhouse of Ved Pal Tanwar, who heads a non-Jat organisation, as illegal.

The farmhouse is located on the Kaimri road here. Several Dalit families from Mirchpur have taken shelter there.The department pasted a show-cause notice on the gates of the farmhouse, asking Tanwar to explain why it should not be demolished. Officials said Tanwar had applied for change of land use for the farmhouse in 2006. The department had asked him to submit some documents to consider his case but Tanwar had failed to do so.

He had gone ahead with the construction illegally.

The police had last week booked Tanwar for holding the Dalits inside his farmhouse against their will.

Meanwhile, the police has withdrawn the security guards provided to some Dalit families who have taken shelter inside the farmhouse. Official sources said this was done as it was felt that the guards’ weapons were unsafe inside the farmhouse. The residents would be provided security once they left the farm- house, the police added.

The Dalits of Mirchpur are divided into two groups. While one group has found shelter at the Tanwar farmhouse, the other has been on a dharna at the mini secretariat here.

A meeting to forge unity was put off yesterday.

Fatehabad, February 4
A runaway couple was today provided police security and lodged in the protection home set up in the district for this purpose.

Balvinder (30), a resident of Indachhui village, had married Kalawati (23), a resident of Kaithal, in a temple in Chandigarh and then the couple got their marriage registered in the Arya Samaj temple.

The couple then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection from the family members of the girl, who had allegedly chased them to Chandigarh.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the local police to provide security to the couple.

Balvinder was married earlier also and had three daughters and a son from his first wife.

His first wife died in March last year.

He met Kalawati at Kaithal, where the two worked in a paperboard factory and fell in love.

However, the girl’s family members were opposed to the marriage.

Chandigarh, February 4
The Budget session of the Haryana Assembly will commence from March 4. This was decided by the state Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department regarding deletion of Clause (1) of Section 98 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887, to facilitate the recovery of government dues from any minister, Leader of the Opposition, Speaker, deputy minister, Deputy Speaker, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Parliamentary Secretary or an MLA.The insertion of Section 8A after Section 8 of the Haryana Legislative Assembly (Allowances and Pension of Members) Act, 1975, was approved by the Cabinet on November 9, 2010.

Section 8A provides that if any person to whom any amount is admissible under the Act, has not paid to the state government any amount payable by him on account of any facility provided to him by the state government in his capacity as minister, Leader of the Opposition, Speaker, deputy minister, Deputy Speaker, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Parliamentary Secretary or member, then notwithstanding anything contrary contained in the sanctioned letter/agreement/mortgage deed, the amount so due to him may be recovered from the amount admissible to him under the Act and if no amount is admissible or the amount so admissible is insufficient, in that case, the amount so due, shall be recovered from him or his legal representative as arrears of land revenue.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal of the Development and Panchayats Department for exchanging “shamlat” land measuring 15 kanals and 4 marlas of the gram panchayat, Kiloi Khas, Rohtak district, with private land measuring 15 kanals and 8 marlas of Prem Singh, son of Bhagwana, for establishing a Basketball Academy.

The Cabinet gave its ex post facto approval to the reconstitution of the Haryana Group D Employees Selection Committee. 

Jind, February 4
The DC conducted a raid on Government PG College (Boys) on Tuesday and found a majority of the teachers absent. Only two teachers were present in the college at the time of the raid. The Deputy Commissioner has written to the Education Department authorities for action against those found absent.

The DClso raided the local Civil Hospital and pulled up the officials concerned after he found the toilets stinking and the sewer system blocked.

The DC visited the college at 10.30 am without any prior information to the college authorities. He got his car parked outside the campus and decided to take a round of the institution without his official gunman. However, he was surprised to find that hardly any class was in progress and students were idling their time outside classrooms as the teachers were absent. Only two teachers were found on duty.

The college pincipal , who was summoned by the DC, reportedly could not give a satisfactory reply regarding the absence of a large number of teachers.

The DC has recommended action against the absentee staff members.

Hisar, February 4
The police arrested a national of Oman at the Army’s Equine Breeding Stud Farm here last night.

The Army authorities informed the police around 9 pm that a foreign national was roaming aimlessly inside the farm premises following which the police nabbed the Arab.

The police said he was not carrying a passport. He spoke Arabic and English fluently. Identifying himself as 35-year-old Hassan Bin Obdullah Bin Abraham from Oman, he claimed he had come to India on November 25 and had since visited Bangalore, Mumbai, Ajmer and Delhi.

He said he boarded a train from Delhi for Amritsar and his passport, identity papers and his belongings were stolen from the train compartment. He said he was looking for shelter for the night and had entered the farm premises ignorant of the fact that it was an Army establishment.

The police have contacted the Oman Embassy. The man is being interrogated.