Chandigarh, March 9
Finance Minister Ajay Singh Yadav today presented the Budget for 2011-12, projecting a revenue deficit of Rs 2,660.68 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 8,008.60 crore. He did not propose any measures to cover the gap.

Presenting his second Budget, Yadav said the state’s financial position had improved due to prudent fiscal management. The projected revenue deficit was much less than the estimated deficit of Rs 4,458.38 crore for the current financial year. He said Haryana would be a surplus state next year.

* Govt to spend over Rs 1,400 crore on repair of canal irrigation system, underground water recharge * To create a water body in Mewat at an  outlay of Rs 116 crore * To increase fleet of roadways buses from 3,400 to 4,500 * Mass Rapid Transport System between  Gurgaon and Rewari. * Streets to be paved in all the 6764 villages * Three new medical colleges to come up in the state * Four-laning of the 54-km Yamunanagar-Ladwa-Karnal section of Highway No. 6 & 7

Last year the deficit had risen sharply because of the liability arising out of the Sixth Pay Commission report. The state had overcome this liability and come out of the economic slowdown. He said the estimated fiscal deficit was 2.61 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which was within the prescribed limit of 3 per cent. Yadav said: "We will summon all resources available to us and dedicate ourselves to the task of taking Haryana forward on the path of development at the same pace and with the same zeal that we have shown in the past six years."

He said the growth of the GSDP was expected to be 18.2 per cent. He expected a higher collection from value-added tax (VAT), an additional Rs 500 crore from excise duty on liquor, mining, stamp duty on property transfer and a higher share in the central taxes, to cover the revenue deficit.

Yadav said no new tax had been imposed and the focus was on the social sector. The debt liability had come down from 68.4 per cent in 2004-05 to 17.38 per cent in 2010-11 and was expected to go down further to 17.15 per cent in the next financial year. For agriculture, Yadav has allocated Rs 1529 crore, for power Rs 4962 crore, transport Rs 1357 crore, irrigation Rs 1748.48 crore, public health Rs 1900 crore, urban development Rs Rs 1695 crore, education Rs 7401 crore, health Rs 1443 crore, social justice Rs 2806 crore and rural development Rs 1104 crore.

The contribution of the primary sector to the GSDP was pegged at 51.7 per cent during the 2009-10 financial year, whereas the secondary and tertiary sectors contributed 29.2 per cent and 19.7 per cent, respectively, as against the primary sector's share of 32 per cent, the secondary sector's 28.4 per cent and the 39.6 per cent share of the tertiary sector in 1999-2000. Yadav said the per capita income of Haryana was likely to grow by 16.3 per cent to Rs 78,781 at the present prices and by 8.2 per cent at constant prices.

He said the total receipts (net of public debt) were projected at Rs 39,170.45 crore of which the revenue receipts were pegged at Rs 32,018.19 crore while the capital receipts (net of public debt) were estimated at Rs 7,152.26 crore. These signified an increase of Rs 6,651.67 crore, Rs 4,421.45 crore and Rs 2,230.22 crore, respectively, vis-a-vis the corresponding projections in the Revised Estimates for 2010-11.

The total expenditure (excluding repayments) was projected at Rs 40,276.28 crore as per the Budget Estimates 2011-12, of which revenue expenditure accounted for Rs 34,678.87 crore and capital expenditure Rs 5,597.41 crore, signifying an increase of Rs 3,704.58 crore, Rs 2,623.75 crore and Rs 1,080.83 crore, respectively, over the corresponding projections in the Revised Estimates for 2010-11.

Chandigarh, March 9
Anand Prakash, the man behind the justice-for-Ruchika movement, has alleged that a special recruitment process to appoint HCS (Executive) officers through nominations is being carried out to ensure “backdoor” entry of certain candidates.

Acting on his petition for directing the State of Haryana to follow a rational criteria while making recommendations for the nominations, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has suspended further action on the basis of the January 28 notification and the circular dated February 2.

A Division Bench of the High Court has issued a notice of motion to the State of Haryana and other respondents while taking up the petition filed through counsel Gurminder Singh.

The state, vide the notification and the circular, has called for “recommendations for nomination for filling the posts of HCS (E) from Registers A-I, A-II and C from the nominating authorities by way of special recruitment”.

Seeking directions for setting aside and quashing the notification and the circular, Gurminder Singh said these were in violation of the statutory rules. He further said that the process was “not transparent and completely without any rational that could be related to the objective sought to be achieved”.

Elaborating, he said: “The main challenge in the writ petition is to the completely arbitrary and discriminatory process being adopted by the state government while making nominations to the Haryana Civil Service...

“The petitioner has come to know that the age bar has been extended to 55 years to accommodate the personal secretary to the Chief Minister, Randhir Singh, who cannot be eligible under the Rules. “Therefore, the qualifications have been tailor-made to suit him and other such candidates. Further, the petitioner has come to know that in certain cases where the officers did not have a sufficiently good record of service, the same has been upgraded before making the nominations.” 

Faridabad, March 9
The president of the All-India Kisan Khet Mazdoor Congress, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, has expressed reservations against the land acquisition policy of the state government.

To a question, Surjewala, a former president of the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC), said the acquisition of farmers’ land by the government for setting up commercial establishments, including SEZs, was against the policy decision of the Congress.

According to him, at a meeting of Congress Chief Ministers at Panchmari in Madhya Pradesh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had decided that fertile land of farmers should not be acquired by the governments in Congress-ruled states for setting up SEZs and other commercial establishments. He said the monetary compensation given to the farmers whose land was acquired was not enough. He said the land should have been acquired at the market rates. To another question, he said Congress workers in Haryana were a “disappointed and depressed” lot as they felt marginalised and neglected by the government.

A former minister, Jagdish Nehra, was also present on the occasion. Surjewala described the Budget as pro-farmer.

Fatehabad, March 9
Sudesh Agarwal, President of the Samast Bharatiya Party (SBP), today visited the agitating Gorakhpur farmers to reaffirm his solidarity with them.

Agarwal, who had spent two days and two nights at the dharna site with the agitating farmers, once in September last year and then again in January this year, alleged that the state government’s attitude towards the farmers had been very insensitive.

“The government has the right to agree to their demands or not. However, the least what is expected is that someone could have met the farmers sitting on dharna for the past 207 days now and listened to their grievances,” said the SBP chief.

He said the insensitivity of the government was evident from the fact that even the death of two farmers had failed to move it.

Agarwal also sympathised with the poor families of Ekta Colony, who have been sitting on dharna with their women and children outside the mini-secretariat to save their houses from acquisition for a sector of HUDA.

He said the government had no right to render poor families roofless in the name of development, particularly when they had constructed their houses after duly purchasing plots from a developer with registered sale deed from sub-registrar’s office. He said if at all it was necessary to acquire their houses, they should be provided alternative constructed houses by the government.

He alleged that Fatehabad was not the only place where the farmers have been agitating and their voices were going unheard and added that demonstrations against acquisition were going on at least at half a dozen places.

He demanded a complete revamping of the land acquisition policy of the state with a provision that no land should be acquired without the consent of the farmers.

Hisar, March 9
The Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti today decided to block rail tracks all over Haryana from tomorrow to press for its demand.

Announcing the decision after a meeting of the 40-member panel of the samiti here this evening, the samiti chief Hawa Singh Sangwan said the deadline they had set for the government to give reservation to Jats in government jobs had expired and consequently the current agitation would be intensified.

He said the samiti had given a call to members of the Jat community to obstruct all railway tracks in Haryana. He said for the time being the samiti had decided not to obstruct roads.

Sangwan said the samiti had decided to engage in a do-or-die battle to press for its demand.

He said the stir was completely peaceful and this proved that Jats were not behind the violence at Mayyar village in this district in September last which had claimed the life of a youth.

Meanwhile, rail traffic in the district remained suspended for the fourth day today as Jats continued to block rail tracks at Ramayan and Gajuwala villages. The indefinite fast by eight members of the community at Ramayan village entered the third day today.

Meanwhile, former minister and Congress legislator Sampat Singh said here today that he was in favour of reservation for Jats in government jobs. Clarifying his stand, he said he was prepared to meet the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti leadership anywhere they wanted to clarify his stand.

He said every community had a right to have its say on various issues in a democracy. But, it must be ensured that the agitations were peaceful and caused no inconvenience to others. There should neither be any damage to public or private property.

Sushil Manav adds from Fatehabad: Activists of the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti blocked the Hisar-Jakhal-Ludhiana railway track near Gajuwala in this district for the second consecutive day on Wednesday.

Over 100 Jat activists have been sitting on the railway track since yesterday and no train plied on this route today.

The activists had stopped the Ludhiana-Hisar passenger train on this route yesterday and the train had to be sent back to Jakhal after dropping all its passengers at Gajuwala.

Sube Singh Punia, district president of the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, said their dharna on the railway track would continue till the demands of the samiti were accepted by the government.

Meanwhile, commuters on this route have been facing a lot of difficulty due to the suspension of rail traffic on the Jakhal-Hisar route. 

Gurgaon, March 9
After having exhausted all official channels to get the blockade, created by the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway concessionaire, removed from the exit point on the peripheral road in Udyog Vihar, Phase III, angry residents and industrialists staged a “rasta kholo” demonstration here today.

The protesters even employed a JCB machine to clear the loose earth dumped by the concessionaire, DS Construction Ltd, at the exit point on the service road of the expressway near the Delhi-Gurgaon toll plaza.

The protest demonstration was staged under the aegis of a joint forum of the Chamber of Industries of Udyog Vihar, the Udyog Vihar Industries Association, the Haryana Industries Association and the Gurgaon Udyog Association.

The forum had written to the district police as well as the administrative authorities, apprising them of the grave inconvenience faced by residents, industrialists and employees due to the road blockade and informing them about their plan to stage a demonstration well in advance.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner SS Deswal asserted that opening of the exit point was essential to ensure the decongestion of the massive volume of traffic in that area. He maintained that the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) should take a prompt decision to open the road in the larger interests of the people.

Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena said he had convened a meeting of all parties concerned, including officials/representatives of the NHAI, the HSIIDC, DS Constructions, industrialists and residents’ bodies to get the matter resolved. 

Faridabad, March 9
Residents of Basailwa Colony here led by Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) councillor Sunder Mahar of the Congress today blocked the Basailwa bypass in protest against the authorities for not listening to their grievances.

The situation has apparently caused embarrassment to the ruling Congress as one of its leaders led the agitation.

The counicllor, representing ward no 24, alleged that the officers of the authorities concerned never took his complaints related to his area seriously.

The protesters lifted the blockade after more than two hours when senior officers of the civic body led by Mayor of the MCF Ashok Arora met them and assured of resolving their problems.

The residents, however, cautioned the MCF authorities of launching a major agitation if their problems related to the civic amenities were not redressed.

Residents took to the streets today due to the choking of the main sewer line in Basailwa Colony, which was allegedly not attended to by the MCF for the past several days.

Mahar alleged that he along with the residents had taken up the cause with the MCF officials several times, but to no avail. The residents alleged that the MCF was insensitive to the problems of the public.

Panipat, March 9
Following the alleged reluctance of the governing body of SD College in providing information under the RTI Act, the State Information Commission (SIC) has issued a notice as to why penalty not be imposed on its SPIO.

In an order passed recently, the SIC stated that there had been a delay in providing information to an applicant, SC Aggarwal, who had asked the college to provide informaion on 10 issues.

The college, being a government-aided institute, falls under the purview of the RTI Act. Aggarwal had sought information on various issues, including the registration of the governing body, funds collected from self-financing courses, construction works undertaken on the college premises and the approval of the site map for a playground.

Even though the RTI application was filed in July last year, the college has not provided information till date. The only information that was provided was about the registration of the governing body. The SIC observed that even after several months, information was not provided as per the rules and thus issued a notice to the governing body of the college.

Chandigarh, March 9
In a state where huge funds are diverted in the name of modernisation of the police, as many as 13 persons die in road accidents everyday in Haryana. While 4,724 persons died in accidents in 2010, a total of 534 deaths have already been reported this year (till February 15, 2011).

The information was provided by the government in response to a question by BJP MLA Anil Vij during Question Hour. The data shows that the number of deaths have steadily climbed up over the past five years - from 3,419 in 2005 to 4,724 in 2010 - while the total number of road accidents too has gone up from 9,520 to 10,934.

The maximum number of deaths, 441 in 2010 and 50 in 2011, have taken place in Gurgaon, considered the state’s show window. The district is governed by a police commissionerate. It has extra availability of manpower and more funds to install cameras at crossings and modernise equipment. The least number of accidents, 117 in 2010 and 11 in 2011, have been reported from Fathehabad.

However, the police blames the rise in number of accidents entirely on the rising indiscipline among people. “We are modernising the force, providing the latest equipment to ensure the safety of the public, but there seems to be a growing tendency for drunken and rash driving,” explains ADGP, law and order, BS Sandhu.

He maintains that with a substantial increase in the number of vehicles in every city, more deaths are being reported and the number is rising with every passing year.

“Road safety is our priority. We have a road safety council in every district to educate people in urban areas to obey traffic rules and avoid underage driving. Besides, the State Road Safety Council which had a meeting with various departments has also worked out an action plan,” Sandhu said.

The council, which has representatives from various departments, has identified spots in the state where a road engineering defect is responsible for accidents.