Rohtak, February 24
A former sarpanch of nearby Kheri Sadh village was shot dead by five armed youths here this noon. He was sitting on a dharna against land acquisition near the IMT here when he was attacked.

The police swung into action and killed one of the accused in an encounter and nabbed the others after a hot chase. One of the accused injured in the encounter was admitted to the PGIMS here.

Furious villagers damaged a Roadways bus and blocked National Highway-10 in protest against the murder.

The assailants, who came in a Maruti car, opened fire at Manoj Sindhu (42) from close range. According to sources, they had been waiting for the victim at the dharna site.

“The attackers, who fled after the crime, were chased by a police team, which reached the spot within minutes,” claimed the IG, V Kamaraja.

While one of the assailants, identified as Neeraj from Panipat, was killed when the police opened fire in self-defence, his accomplices Ravinder (Kheri Sadh), Parveen from Pakasma village, Sonu from Karsindhu and Pardeep, a resident of Nahra village in Sonepat district, were nabbed.

A case of murder has been regstered.Three pistols used by the criminals have been seized and the crime vehicle has been impounded.

Satish Bhalout, one of those leading the protest, claimed that he too had received a threat call on his cell phone.

The police, however, claimed that old enmity could have led to the murder. The protesters, who were squatting on NH-10 till the filing of the report, said the body of the former sarpanch would not be cremated till the state government withdrew the land acquisition notice and announced compensation for the family of the deceased.

Sirsa, February 24
Members of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association (AFWWA) today reached out to senior citizens in the local Kasturba Gandhi Vridhashram and discussed with them the problems confronting them.

The members also visited Disha, an institute for special children, and spent some time with them.

The members also offered them eatables, clothes and some other commodities for their daily use.

Ashima Sabharwal, wife of Group Captain Anil Sabharwal, Station Commander of the Air Force Station, Sirsa, and chairperson of the local chapter of the AFWWA, said the visits were part of the fortnight-long celebrations pertaining to International Women Day.

“Our aim of going to the vridhashram was to provide emotional support to the senior citizens living there. In today’s world, many people donate money to provide material things to old-age homes, but fewer people spare time to sit with them,” she said.

Ashima said AFWWA members had been reaching out to girls and women from all strata of society to know the problems faced by them and to see if their organisation could offer any support in solving those problems.

She said the AFWWA had planned a number of activities for the International Women Day celebrations and members of the organisation would also visit Meerpur village on March 1.

The AFWWA had adopted Meerpur village under its literacy programme and its members had ameliorated the lot of several illiterate women of the village by making them able to read and write.

Chandigarh, February 24
Haryana government has paid Rs 9,834.73 crore between March, 2005 and June, 2010 for acquiring land, informed the state industries minister Randeep Singh Surjewala here today. He told The Tribune that during this period the state government actually acquired 43,232 acres of land for various public utilities at an average compensation of Rs. 22.74 lakh per acre.

“Compared to this, the INLD, from February 1999 to 2005, acquired just over 4392 acres and paid out Rs 286.62 crore as compensation, with the average coming to Rs 6.53 lakh per acre,” he added while stressing that the Congress government has been more farmer-friendly than the INLD.

But notwithstanding the spirited defence put up by the state government, anger against land acquisition is pouring onto the roads by way of dharnas and road blockades across the state.

While some farmers in Fatehabad’s Gorakhpur have refused to give up their land for a nuclear power plant, others are demanding better compensation. In Kheri Sandh village in Rohtak, the government wants land for setting up an industrial model township (IMT), but the villagers are dead set against the move.

In Ambala, the government has had to reconsider its decision to acquire land for an IMT following an agitation while anti-acquisition protests are on in Faridabad and Gurgaon.

The government claims that most of these protests are politically motivated and sponsored by rival parties, but the Opposition, particularly the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), maintains that the government is completely out of touch with the ground reality.

Says INLD general secretary and Dabwali MLA, Ajay Singh: “The Congress government is happy that its land acquisition policy has been applauded by the Centre but the truth is that the party is not in sync with the ground situation.” The INLD says that the Congress is “gobbling up” fertile land to benefit private developers. “The government offers very little in the name of compensation. Then, 50 per cent of those living in villages are dependent on land for a livelihood. While the farmer gets compensation, the government does not have a rehabilitation plan for the landless labourers.

“If the government policy is as good as is being professed, why is the number of protests increasing by the day? Villagers in Fatehabad, Faridabad, Palwal and even in the Chief Minister’s hometown are protesting against acquisition,” he says. The INLD also alleges that the government releases more land than it acquires to benefit a certain group.

Defending the government policy and maintaining that the Congress rule under Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has seen “unprecedented growth”, Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala says the INLD seems to have woken up to farmers’ interests only after being voted out.

Surjewala says the government has already revised the floor rates offered under the relief and rehabilitation policy twice. “During the Chautala regime, the compensation for land was decided by the collector arbitrarily,” he points out. Amidst the protests against land acquisition, the government and the Opposition continue to play ping pong on the issue.

Panipat, February 24
The recently imposed power surcharge has put tremendous pressure on a large number of manufactures of textile, yarn, carpets and other products in this industrial hub of the region as they are struggling to survive in the market.

With shortage of labour already creating problems for the producers, a recently imposed power surcharge of Rs 120 per kW is eating into their profits. The industrialists have urged the state government to immediately come up with measures to provide them relief.

Highlighting the problems being faced by the industry, Jagdish Jain, president of the Panipat Shoddy Yarn Mill Association said the state government had recently imposed a surcharge of Rs 120 per kW on the power connections. Due to this the industrial units having a connection of 100 KW were burdened with an extra expenditure of Rs 12,000 a month which was in addition to other charges that were being already paid by the power consumers in the state.

Jain said the industry was already plagued by problems like shortage of labour, excessive taxes, rise in prices of raw materials and reduced profit margins. He said in the present scenario most of the mills in the city were running into huge losses and were almost facing a crisis-like situation.

He said the power surcharge imposed by the government had increased the overhead charges of the industry resulting in rise in the prices of the finished products. “At a time when there is tough competition in the market, the mills are selling their produce at half the profit margins and the new surcharge has become unbearable for the mill owners,” he said.

He said surcharge had been imposed without taking industrialists into confidence and despite putting up a strong case with the government against it, so far no concrete step had been taken by the authorities concerned.

Jain said the blankets being imported from China had already affected the sales of the locally made blankets, and the step-motherly treatment being meted out by the government had made things more difficult for the industrialists.

He said producers paid crores of revenue to the government every year by way of ten per cent customs duty on raw material and 5.25 per cent VAT on the finished product, but when it came to safeguarding their interests the government seemed to be turning a blind eye.

Chandigarh, February 24
The Union Ministry for Environment and Forests has not responded to the request of Haryana and Punjab to exempt “wet mining” from the purview of its notification dated September 14, 2006, making prior environment clearance mandatory for mining projects.

In view of the requirement, the mining in the two states has virtually come to a standstill, adversely affecting construction activities, including development projects.

The two states had made the request at a meeting with Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh held about three months ago. Later, Haryana Environment Minister Ajay Singh Yadav had written to Ramesh in this regard. Sources in the Haryana Environment Department say so far the Union Ministry has not responded to Yadav’s letter.

“Wet mining” is referred to quarrying of sand and stones from the riverbed. Haryana and Punjab’s request is in consonance with the stand taken by the Uttar Pradesh Government before the Allahabad High Court that it does not require any environment clearance. The High Court is still hearing the matter.

Yadav wrote to Ramesh that more than 95 per cent of the mining operations in Haryana were confined to mining of minor minerals, consisting of construction material.

He said boulders, gravel and sand in large quantity remained accumulated in the beds of various rivulets in the districts of Panchkula, Yamunanagar and Ambala. This was a natural occurrence. The removal of the material from the riverbeds and adjoining areas was a necessity to maintain the course of rivulets, failing which the boulders, gravel and sand would block the natural flow of the rivulets and lead to inundation of the adjoining areas.

Yadav said the removal of boulders, gravel and sand from the riverbeds did not require any blasting and the digging was limited up to a depth of 3 metres only. The pits created during the extraction of the material were replenished periodically in the rainy season.

He pointed out that till about 10 years back, the state used to spend a lot of money on de-silting of canals. After the government started auctioning the construction material lying in the beds of canals, it started earning out of it.

Yadav pleaded with Ramesh that since the removal of construction material from the riverbeds had minimal environmental impact, “wet mining” sbe exempted from the purview of the September 14, 2006 notification.

Panipat, February 24
In a significant ruling, the State Information Commission (SIC) has snubbed the SPIO attached with the office of the Chief Secretary of Haryana for denying information to a convict lodged in a jail in Karnal. The commission upheld that “confinement to police or judicial custody or conviction has no bearing on a citizen’s right to seek information under the RTI Act”.

The ruling came following a petition filing by RTI activist PP Kapoor before the commission in which he stated that on December 16, 2009, he had sought information from the said SPIO to provide him with the details of properties owned by all IAS, IPS, HPS and HCS officers and tehsildars posted in the state at the time of their joining the duty and at the end of 2009. Kapoor is undergoing five years’ imprisonment in a case related to damage caused to a factory in Panipat during protests organised by his trade union six years ago.

Kapoor contended that despite depositing an extra fee of Rs 340 demanded by the SPIO to furnish the details, he was not provided with the information. He said on March 9, 2010, the SPIO sent him a letter asking him to deposit Rs 50 as fee and when he replied to the letter, the SPIO sent him another letter on June 8, 2010, demanding Rs 340 as fee.

Having been denied the information, Kapoor filed a petition with the SIC.

Defending his case before the commission, the SPIO went on record stating that he had sought the consent of the officers concerned before disclosing the information to the applicant and since they objected to furnishing of their property details, he did not wish to furnish the information to the appellant. He also submitted that “since the applicant was in custody, a question had arisen whether a convict could seek information or not”.

After hearing the parties and a perusal of the records, the commission stated that “confinement to police or judicial custody or conviction has no bearing on a citizen’s right to seek information under the RTI Act”.

On the matter of providing the property details of the officers concerned under the RTI Act, the issue has been referred to the full bench of the commission. The date and time of the hearing will be decided later.

Kaithal, February 24
The state government would enforce a new transport policy from next month, and as many as 2,700 cooperative societies, including 900 existing ones, would be issued permits to run buses. Under the new policy a provision had been introduced that if the society concerned did not run its bus on earmarked routes and the bus was challaned twice and later was again found violating rules, its license would be cancelled.

This was stated by Transport Minister Om Parkash Jain while talking to mediapersons after presiding over the district grievances committee meeting here today.

Jain said after the induction of 700 new buses recently in the fleet of Haryana Roadways, the number of buses had risen to 4,100. He said as many as 4,100 roadways buses and 2,700 private buses would be in a position to provide better bus services to the people of Haryana.

Earlier the minister heard grievances of the people in the mini-secretariat and disposed of 25 complaints by issuing necessary instructions to the officials.

During this meeting two cases of procuring BPL ration cards came to light though the recipients were not entitled to do so. In the first case, Faquiria of Papsar in Guhla tehsil, was issued a BPL card after providing wrong information about his financial status.

In another case, Balbir Chand Dhiman, a Lambardar in Guhla, was also found guilty of procuring a BPL card though he was not entitled to it as he possessed a pucca house and other properties.

Guhla SDM assured action against the guilty in all such cases.

Chandigarh, February 24
The government today transferred 11 IAS officers and four HCS officers with immediate effect. Ajit M Sharan becomes Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary to Technical Education Department in addition to his present assignments. Anand Mohan Sharan will be Additional Resident Commissioner, Haryana Bhawan, New Delhi, and Administrator, TFAH.

He also holds the charge of Director, Development and Panchayats, and Special Secretary to Development and Panchayats Department; Sandeep Garg goes as Managing Director, Haryana Land Reclamation Development Corporation and Special Secretary, Agriculture. Pushp Raj Singh becomes Special Secretary, Home-I, and SK Goyal will be Special Secretary, Irrigation, and MD, Haryana State Minor Irrigation and Tubewell Corporation.

RS Khara has been posted MD, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation, Wazeer Singh is Deputy Secretary, Public Health, Ashok Kumar Sangwan Deputy Secretary, Administrative Reforms, and DC, Yamunanagar. Atul Kumar is ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Hisar, DK Behera has been posted as ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Palwal, and KM Pandurang ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Karnal.

Chander Shekhar has been posted as Additional Director (Administration), Industries and Commerce. Vivek Atray is Additional Director (Administration), Secondary Education, Ashok Kumar Garg ADC-cum-CEO, DRDA, Jhajjar, and Samwartak Singh Khangwal Joint Director (Administration), Development and Panchayats.

Sonepat, February 24
The State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission of Haryana has upheld the order of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum regarding the imposition of a penalty of Rs 10,000 on an SDO and a Junior Engineer of Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam posted in Sonepat in 1995 for not complying with the law of the land while inspecting the site of an electricity consumer.

The penalty is to be deducted from their salary.

The commission also upheld the decision of the district forum directing the Bijli Nigam authorities not to effect any recovery of the electricity bill amounting to Rs 1,500 from the consumer, Anoop Singh of the local Shashtri colony.

The commission directed that if the said connection was lying disconnected, it should be restored and the order must be complied within 30 days of the pronouncement of this order.

The grievance of Anoop Singh before the district forum was that a penalty of Rs 1,500 was imposed on him by the nigam officials on April 29,1995, on the ground that during checking both M and T seals of the electricity meter were found tempered with.

After hearing both the parties, the district forum passed an order in favour of Anoop Singh on April 25, 2003, directing the nigam authorities not to recover the amount of penalty.

The forum also imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 on SDO and JE concerned. The forum’s order was challenged in the commission by the nigam authorities.

Panipat, February 24
The district police today claimed to have solved the murder of 25-year-old Sachin, son of a policeman, who was gunned down outside his house on Monday night.

Sachin was killed by Neelu, who lived in the same locality as the victim. The police said Neelu, along with Pawan Sharma, had surrendered before the police today and confessed to have fired three shots at Sachin, resulting in his death.

Sachin reportedly had some differences with Neelu’s younger brother. He had visited their house a few days back and threatened the family. Neelu claimed that even though he had reported the matter to the police, no action was taken against Sachin as his father was an ASI. Dejected, he took the extreme step of murdering him.

Naresh Ahlawat, SHO, said the accused would be produced in court tomorrow and the matter was being further probed to ascertain if more persons were involved in the crime.

The police had registered a case against Neelu, Pawan, Vinod, Sonam and Vinod Sharma and two unidentified persons.

Sirsa, February 24
The police today raided a cable network office at Kalanwali town in this district and arrested a worker for alleged violation of the Copyright Act.

Ramesh Kumar, a representative of the Kapoor Copyright Protection Agency, Ludhiana, today approached the Kalanwali police station and alleged that the local Five Star Cable Network was illegally showing programmes of their clients, the Star Plus group of channels, without permission from them.

The cable network owners, he alleged, had not paid any licence fees to their clients.

A police spokesperson said Sukhwinder, an employee of the Five Star Cable Network, had been arrested for illegally airing programmes of Star Plus channels.

He had been arrested under Sections 51, 52A, 63, 65 and 68A of the Copyright Act, 1957, the police spokesperson added.

Chandigarh, February 24
Haryana Public Health Engineering Minister Kiran Choudhry today directed the officers of the department to draw up a contingent plan to ensure adequate drinking water supply to the people in view of the ensuing summer.

Kiran Choudhry, who was addressing the superintending engineers and executive engineers of Ambala, Yamuna Nagar, Karnal, Kaithal, Sirsa and Sonepat Circle, here said sufficient water should be ensured not only for human consumption but also for cattle during the summer.

She also directed the officers to ensure the cleaning of sewers across the state in a month. She emphasised that the quality of works should be maintained at all costs.