Karnal, April 17
Over 20 persons, including a DSP and five other police officers and a sarpanch, were injured when villagers of Bajida Jatan and Sirsi indulged in heavy stone pelting and tried to torch a police vehicle when the police tried to stop them from harvesting crop on disputed panchayat land today.

The police booked about 60 persons, including women, on charges of rioting, unlawful assembly, criminal assault, causing hurt, mischief by fire, theft and obstructing public servant from discharging duty.

The trouble arose when residents of the two villages gathered at the disputed land which the government claimed had been vested in the panchayat and started harvesting the standing crop thereon.

As tension started brewing, block development and panchayat officer (BDPO) Pritpal Singh and Ashok, sarpanch of Bajida Jatan, contacted Madhuban police station and expressed apprehensions that a violent clash could occur between the villagers and the panchayat.

SHO Roop Singh accompanied the BDPO to the spot along with policemen but the force was inadequate to control the rival groups who had started harvesting the crop on disputed panchayat land in Sirsi Gamri.

The SHO asked for more force and as soon as DSP Rajesh Kumar reached their with reinforcements, the villagers, including a large number of women, turned violent and indulged in heavy stone pelting. The DSP along with five other police officers, sarpanch and three panches of Bajida Jatan village, driver of the BDPO and six other persons sustained injuries.

DSP Rajesh Kumar lost his tooth in stone pelting while SI Ram Kumar, ASIs Sunil Kumar and Vinod, Rishpal(driver), Sarpanch Ashok Kumar, Prem Singh, Kailash Chand and Brijesh Kumar (all panches) and three women of Sirsi village, who were seriously injured were brought to the trauma centre at the local civil hospital.

The villagers on rampage tried to torch police vehicles and damaged three others, including those of the BDPO, DSP and PCR.

According to the police, the possession of 24-acre land near Bajida station along with the standing crop was given to the panchayat on March 3 but the land encroachers had filed an appeal with the Commissioner, Rohtak.

The villagers claimed that they had been cultivating the land for the past 70 years and the girdawari and tubewell connection were also in their names. Describing the government action vesting the land in the panchayat as “unilateral and illegal”, the villagers said they would not give up its possession come what may. 

Kaithal, April 17
The state executive committee of the HSGPC (ad hoc ) Nalvi faction at a meeting held in Gurdwara Neem Sahib here today passed a resolution for writing a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to help constitute a separate gurdwara parbandhak committee to look after Sikh shrines in Haryana.

Addressing mediapersons after the meeting Didar Singh Nalvi, working president of the HSGPC ( ad hoc), said that the draft of the letter to be sent to the Prime Minister in this connection had been approved. The attention of the Prime Minister would be drawn to section 72 (3) of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, under which it was mandatory for the Haryana Government to initiate the necessary steps for the establishment of a separate gurdwara parbandhak committee. Instead of creating a separate parbandhak committee, the state government was going to hold gurdwara elections which had caused resentment among Sikhs in Haryana .

Nalvi said Sikhs would urge the Prime Minister to direct the Haryana Chief Minister to cancel the proposed gurdwara elections in Haryana and issue an ordinance for establishing a separate gurdwara parbandhak committee as recommended by the Chatha committee. The Union Home Minister should be advised to delay the gurdwara elections till the Haryana government establishes a separate body for Haryana.

In a separate letter addressed to the Haryana Chief Minister, the HSGPC had urged him to keep his promise made before the Assembly elections in which he had favoured a separate committee for Haryana.

Raminder Singh Juneja (president), Sohinder Singh (secretary) and scores of representatives of Sikhs from various districts of the state were present in this meeting. 

Chandigarh, April 17
To overcome the shortage of specialist doctors, the Haryana Government has decided to sponsor its serving doctors for higher studies up to the level of postgraduation.

Health Minister Narender Singh said here yesterday that doctors would be sponsored for higher studies with full pay only in the streams of general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, pediatrics, orthopaedic surgery, anaesthesia, pathology, radiology, psychiatry, eye surgery, forensic medicine, ENT surgery, dental, social and preventive medicine, chest and TB and pharmacology, as there was a shortage of specialists in these fields.

If any doctor, after five or three years of service, wished to do postgraduation in any other speciality, he would have to seek extraordinary leave without pay. His service, however, would be protected for the purpose of increments, seniority and pension.

The MBBS doctors would be eligible for doing a postgraduate course, both degree as well as diploma, after completion of five years of regular satisfactory service, including two years of probation, out of which, three years of service should be in a district hospital or a sub-divisional hospital and two years in rural areas.

If a doctor wished to go for super-speciality after completion of his postgraduation, he would be allowed to join super-specialisation course only after serving the government for at least three years after the acquisition of postgraduate degree. Full salary would be paid to such doctors and the period spent on the super-specialisation course would be treated as service for all intents and purposes.

The doctors would have to execute a service bond for a minimum of seven years or pay Rs 25 lakh to the Haryana Government in lieu thereof in the case of postgraduate degree or super-speciality course and for a minimum five years or pay Rs 10 lakh in lieu thereof in the case of a postgraduate diploma.

He said if a person failed to complete the course within the prescribed period, he or she might be allowed to avail maximum three more chances to complete the same. The additional time period taken for completion of the course would be treated as extra­ordinary leave without pay. 

Karnal, April 17
The Haryana Federation of University and College Teachers Organizations (HFUCTO) has served an ultimatum on the state government to issue a comprehensive notification to implement the revised UGC pay scales in toto by April 20 failing which the federation would stage a mass dharna in front of the office of the Director- General of Higher Education, Panchkula, on April 22.

Peeved over the delaying tactics adopted by the government in issuing the notification in accordance with the notifications issued by the UGC and the Union HRD ministry in August, 2009, and the UGC regulations released in June, 2010, the federation has decided to intensify the agitation and take it to its logical end.

The HFUCTO office-bearers, who met at the local DAV College, expressed resentment over the “indifferent” attitude of the government and accused it of violating the HRD/UGC recommendations which have to be implemented as a composite package without any dilution.

HFUCTO president Pradeep Chauhan, president of the Kurukshetra University Teachers Association (KUTA), said the agitation would continue and nothing short of a comprehensive notification issuedin consultation with the federation would be acceptable .

“The violation is evident in the recent dictates/circulars of the Department of Higher Education regarding stay hours, workload, status of librarians as non-teaching staff, selection criteria for principals and unhindered erosion of university autonomy in the name of academic reforms” said AIFUCTO vice-president Vazir Nehra.

Pradeep Chauhan has cautioned the government against using the pending notification as a tool to erode the residual autonomy of universities in the state,” Chauhan said.

Dr Kapoor Singh Dhaka, North Zone secretary of AIFUCTO, alleged that the bureaucracy was going ahead with implementing recommendations in such a manner as to subvert the HRD/UGC norms and harm the interests of teachers.

The HFUCTO constituents KUTA, the HGCTA and the HCTA also called upon the government to uphold and strengthen the autonomy of state universities through the proposed notification as per the UGC regulations released in June, 2010.

The issues which had not so far been notified also included raising the retirement age to 65 years as recommended by the UGC and advance increments for higher educational qualifications like M.Phil./Ph.D./LLM at the entry level or during service.

Gharaunda, April 17
In its fight against a liquor vend, the backward Sikligar community of Premnagar village in Gharaunda has shown how the collective will of the people can defeat vested interests. The villagers have managed to get the liquor vend closed.

The village, dominated by members of the Sikligar caste, had started a campaign for the closure of the liquor vend on January 1 in 2008.

The entire gram panchayat joined the campaign against the liquor vend, which had become a nuisance for the villagers.

The villagers not only made the village “liquor free” but also imposed a fine of Rs 500 on a person allegedly selling illicit liquor. The villagers have taken a pledge not to take liquor and have also sought the assistance of the police in keeping a check on the liquor mafia.

The villagers repeatedly wrote to the Deputy Commissioner to close the vend, but the authorities remained “indifferent”. Fed up, the agitated villagers had even set the liquor vend on fire. Some

vested interests tried to exert pressure on the villagers, but their designs were thwarted by the villagers through a show of unity.

The agitation was led by the sarpanch, Vikas Puri, Jarnail Singh and Mahendra, both panches, and social activists Jaswant Singh, Rani Kaur, Gulabo and Shant Kaur, who did not come under pressure and remained firm on their demand for the closure of the liquor vend.

Although the liquor vend was reopened after it was burnt, the administration was cautious and decided not to open the liquor vend in the village this year. Finally, the people won.

The triumphant villagers said it was a victory of the entire village and hoped that it would go a long way in keeping the youth away from liquor. 

Fatehabad, April 17
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) has launched a drive to allay fears of villagers regarding the safety of nuclear plants, especially after the Tsunami triggered nuclear disasters in Japan.

A team of the NPCIL headed by KB Dixit, Executive Director (Engineering and Procurement), has reached the state in this connection.

The NPCIL has proposed to set up a nuclear power project at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad district.

The team would give a presentation in the conference hall of Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd (HPGCL), Panchkula, tomorrow, said Sanjay Gumasta, project manager of the Gorakhpur atomic power project.

He said the presentation would be aimed at clearing the apprehensions related to the recent nuclear mishaps in Japan and also the status of safety preparedness of the Indian atomic power projects.

Gumasta said NPCIL chairman and managing director (CMD) SK Jain had already taken proactive steps of constituting four task forces, one each for different generation of designs in India.

The four task forces, based on the information available from the Fukushima Daiichi reactor incident, have studied the capability of the current reactors in India to handle similar extended loss of power scenarios. The results of the study was thoroughly reviewed and discussed with various experts and the top management at the NPCIL, he added.

The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board had also constituted a high-level specialist committee to study the implications of the incident at Fukushima to examine the need for enhancing the safety of Indian nuclear power plants, Gumasta said.

He said he had written to several educational institutions, industry associations and other stakeholder groups in Fatehabad and Hisar and presentations by experts would also be given there to allay the fears on the safety of nuclear projects.

Meanwhile, a section of farmers opposed to the Gorakhpur power project continued their 246-day-old dharna outside the local mini-secretariat here today.

Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, agitating against the project, alleged that the government was bent upon going ahead with the project.

Sirsa, April 17
A one-and-a-half-year-old child was safely taken out of 35-foot-deep borewell at Mochiwali village in this district today. The child had fallen into the borewell while playing.

The child, Chhottu, son of a brick-kiln labourer, Mangal Singh, is in fine health. He remained in the borewell for more than two and a half hours.

Chand Singh, SHO of the Ding police station, who reached the accident site immediately on receiving information, said Chhottu fell into the borewell of a hand pump near Gobind Ram Brick-Kiln at Mochiwali at about 3 pm while he was playing with another child, Manoj.

The parents came to know about the incident after Manoj started crying and told them about Chhottu’s plight.

Chand Singh said a JCB machine was arranged immediately and a 35-foot ditch was dug near the borewell.

Later, the child was taken out of the borewell through a link made between the two bores.

A team of doctors arrived at the site and provided first aid and oxygen to the child.

The child was taken to the general hospital, Sirsa. Doctors maintained that the kid was in fine health. 

Chandigarh, April 17
In its efforts to give impetus to the development works in urban areas, the Haryana Government has prepared City Development Plans (CDPs) for 73 towns of the state to work out the gaps in basic infrastructure like roads, drains, water supply and sewerage. Stating this here today, an official spokesman said the state government had earmarked Rs 1,695.01 crore for urban local bodies during 2011-12, which is Rs 90.78 crore higher than the allocation made for 2010-11.

He said a sum of Rs 144 crore was released during 2008-09 and 2009-10 to carry out the announcement made by the Chief Minister to give Rs 1 crore for the development of each municipal ward having the SC population of more than 50 per cent for all urban local bodies in two years. As many as 144 wards had been identified in the state with the SC population of more than 50 per cent.

He said a provision of Rs 196.17 crore had been made for 2011-12 for the Urban Local Bodies Department under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission. Under the mission, seven detailed project reports, costing Rs 823.33 crore for Municipal Corporation, Faridabad, had been approved by the central government. Against this, Rs 162.87 crore and Rs 65.08 crore have already been released by the central and the state governments, respectively.

The CDP for Panchkula town, which was recently included under the JNNURM along with Chandigarh and Mohali had been approved by the state government and submitted to the Government of India for earmarking funds. Efforts would also be made to notify affordable housing policy during the current year.

Sonepat, April 17
A number of villages in Sonepat, Kharkhoda, Rai and Gannaur blocks of the district were lashed by hailstorm for around 10 minutes, causing damage to standing crops and hampering the work of harvesting and thrashing of wheat crop. The wheat stock brought by farmers to mandis also got wet.

After intermittent showers during the day, there was a hailstorm around 5 pm, which continued for around 10 minutes.

Cloudy weather and intermittent rain during the past few days, coupled with the hailstorm today, have caused worry among the farmers, who were otherwise hoping for a record wheat production this season.

Deputy Director, Agriculture, Anil Sehrawat confirmed that there were reports of hailstorm from some areas in the district. He said information about crop damage would be gathered tomorrow.

Sirsa, April 17
Amid reports of scarcity of Bt cottonseed and allegations of blackmarketing in some of the varieties, the Haryana Agriculture Department has devised a two-pronged strategy to meet the challenge.

On the one hand, the department will get tough with the blackmarketeers and lodge FIRs against them, on the other the authorities have started a mass awareness campaign to educate farmers, who have been after only a few varieties of Bt cottonseed resulting in chaotic scenes outside outlets.

Ashok Kumar Yadav, Director-General, Agriculture Department, Haryana, maintained that the problem was not real but was a result of the lack of awareness among farmers.

Yadav said most of the farmers had been asking for one or two varieties of Bt cottonseed and that too of the boll guard I (BG I) variety.

Showing a communication from Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, Yadav maintained that the results of experiments conducted by the university on 64 Bt cotton varieties during the kharif 2010 had shown that the boll guard II (BG II) varieties of Bt hybrid cottonseeds were at par or even better than the BG I varieties.

“While the BG I varieties protect the crops from pink bollworm, spotted bollworm and American bollworm, the BG II varieties of Bt cottonseed provide additional protection against tobacco caterpillar,” he said.

Though tobacco caterpillar is not a serious problem in Haryana, it was noticed at some places in Sirsa district last year.

The only other difference between the two is that the BG II varieties are priced at Rs 1,000 per packet against the maximum retail price of Rs 825 for the BG I varieties.

“We have launched an awareness drive through our field staff that instead of running after certain particular brands, they should opt for other varieties, which provide equally good or even more yield,” said Yadav.

The farm authorities have been appealing to the farmers to use four or five varieties of seeds instead of a one so that if a problem occurs with one variety, the entire crop is not damaged.

Yadav said the awareness drive had already started showing results and the situation had eased now.

“Against the total requirement of 30 lakh packets of Bt cottonseed required for the estimated 6 lakh hectares of land under cotton this year, 10 lakh packets have already reached farmers though the sowing season has still not arrived,” Yadav asserted and maintained that over 36 lakh packets of cottonseeds were available in the market. 

Yamunanagar, April 17
A person was killed and four forest guards were injured in an exchange of fire between a group of poachers and the staff in the Kalesar Forest last night.

According to forest department officials, a group of 11 armed poachers from Himachal entered the Kalesar Forest to hunt quails and wild boars around 8 pm yesterday.

District Forest Officer Rajesh Gulia said the poachers overpowered the forest staff and beat them up with rifle butts.

They also opened fire on the forest staff, in which two of the forest employees got injured.

The forest employees also opened fire in retaliation, killing one of the poachers on the spot. However, the rest of them escaped leaving behind the dead. The police reached the spot and shifted the injured to the Civil Hospital, Yamunanagar.

The police sent the poacher’s body for a postmortem and registered a case.

SHO of the Khijrabad police station Ran Singh alleged that the killed poacher was a resident of Kishanpura village of Paonta Sahib and the police had sought the help of the Himachal police to identify the poachers who managed to escape. 

Chandigarh, April 17
Three cities of Haryana - Gurgaon, Faridabad and Panchkula - will have radio cabs with the state’s Transport Department planning to grant contract carriage permits to radio cabs in these cities.

Transport Minister Om Parkash Jain said the cabs would operate within a radius of 50 km from these towns. The permits would be granted in three categories - economy cabs, luxury cabs and super luxury cabs. The minister said the minimum fleet size per operator would be five motor cabs for Panchkula and 20 cabs for Gurgaon and Faridabad.