New Delhi, May 2
The process of carving out a separate high court for Haryana is on. In an exclusive interview with The Tribune, the Union Law Minister, Dr M. Veerappa Moily, said “the process is on” and they were “seriously considering a separate high court for the state”.

He was talking to The Tribune at a dinner hosted in his honour by Additional Solicitor-General of India Mohan Jain. The assertion came immediately after Haryana Chief Minister again took up the issue of a separate high court with Moily. Moily said the Law Ministry had indeed received several letters from the Chief Minister and it was taking up the issue with the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Moily revealed he had already written to the Chief Justice and a reply was awaited. The Law Minister added he was planning a visit to Chandigarh soon, indicating that the issue would come up for further discussion then. Making it clear that he was not averse to the bifurcation of the high court, Moily said almost all states had their own high courts. In fact, 21 full-fledged high courts were functional for 28 states and three Union Territories.

The development is significant as in February Moily had asserted the Law Ministry had not been taken up the issue seriously even though it had received a proposal for a separate high court.

Former Advocate-General of Haryana Jain said the bifurcation was expected to bring speedier justice for a local Haryanavi involved in litigation. Jain said currently the combined high court had a pendency of more than 2 lakh cases. The number of cases pending in the courts for two or more years was 1.7 lakh. With the bifurcation, Haryana could hope to see speedier delivery of justice due to a decreased workload.

Jain added though the number of judges would be less, the disposal would still be more as Haryana’s litigation substantially hovered around land and service matters that were often disposed of by a single judgment.

Reiterating his stand, Hooda said: “It is our legitimate right to have a separate high court for Haryana.” The CM said he wanted the high court to be located at Chandigarh and that too in the same building as the city was Haryana’s capital too.

Gharaunda (Karnal), May 2
Israeli Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Orit Noked today offered agricultural technologies to India and showered praise on Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda for steps taken for betterment of farmers. She ,however, did not commit on setting up a research and development centre for agriculture, horticulture and allied fields and transfer of seeds and plants of certain varieties of fruits.

Addressing a joint press conference with Hooda, she said that the proposal of the Chief Minister for providing “concrete help” from Israel in establishing “a research and development project sounded like a wonderful idea but I will look at it when I get back to Israel.”

On the request of Chief Minister for transfer of certain varieties for citrus, olives, pomegranate, mango and grape, the Israeli minister said that the transfer of seeds and plants was a complicated issue for which special agreements were needed. She said the matter would bve taken up with the Government of India.

She said that the technologies would benefit the Indian farmers in enhancing their income and lauded Hooda for taking a big leap for the betterment of farmers.

Describing the work done by Hooda as “wonderful”, she said she impressed with the kind of efforts made in the Centre of Excellence for Vegetables, the first such centre under Indo-Israel collaboration.

“I will tell everybody including Union Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar that cooperation with Haryana has been a success and also tell about what Haryana Chief Minister has achieved in Gharaunda”, she added.

Referring to extension of the project , she said “we are extremely interested in continuing cooperation”.

Welcoming Hooda’s suggestion to sponsor 25 progressive farmers of the state to visit and study advanced technologies of Israel, she said that the implementation of these technologies would benefit Indian farmers by enhancing their income. Hooda said the proposed Rs 1500-crore terminal market at Gannaur would help the farmers in post-harvest management.

Apart from the 12 centres being set up for vegetable production, the government would offer A 65 per cent subsidy to the farmers in setting up polyhouses.

Fatehabad, May 2
The police forcibly shifted to hospital two residents of Ekta Colony, Puran Chand (70) and Gurdeep Kaur (58), who began their indefinite fast this morning in protest against the acquisition of their houses for a sector by HUDA.

The police party was accompanied by two doctors, who examined the two for some time before the police forced the fasting protestors into an ambulance.

Shortly before the police action, Vijay Singh Dahiya, DC, called the agitating Ekta Colony residents to his camp office and asked them to end their stir.

However, the residents rejected the offer and declared that they would go ahead with their agitation and indefinite fast by two of them.

Ram Singh, president of the Ekta Colony Sangharsh Samiti, who is heading the agitation, said the dharna by the residents entered its 75th day today.

“While the authorities released the land of influential persons, our 4 to 5 marla houses have been acquired for Rs 440 per yard against the market rate of Rs 16000 per yard and they are offering us 75-yard plots at the market rate,” alleged Ram Singh.

He said Ekta Colony residents would not be intimidated by the highhanded attitude of the authorities and their agitation would continue.

Sirsa, May 2
A young girl pursuing a BEd course at the Shah Satnam College of Education, run by Dera Sacha Sauda, died due to strangulation in her hostel today.

Pawan Insan, a spokesperson for the dera, said the girl, Sonam Tyagi (21), daughter of Satpal Tyagi from Gangoh town in Saharanpur district of UP, committed suicide by hanging herself from a ceiling fan in her hostel room this afternoon.

He said the girl was under some tension for the past one month.

When the police reached the dera after getting information, the body of the girl was lying in the multi-speciality hospital of the dera.

DSP Babu Lal Yadav, who reached the dera a police party, said preliminary investigation revealed that Sonam had taken her lunch with her other roommates Sonia and Mamta.

Sonia has told the police that when she returned to the room after cleaning utensils as per her turn under the hostel roster, she found Sonam hanging from the ceiling fan.

She brought the matter to the notice of the hostel warden. Yadav said no suicide note had been found in the room.

SP Vivek Sharma said the position would become clear when the girl’s parents reached Sirsa from Gangoh.

It is the third incident of alleged suicide in five days by persons associated with the dera.

Yamunanagar, May 2
Union Minister Kumari Selja today visited the bereaved families of the victims of the recent Manakpur accident.

Describing the accident as unfortunate, she expressed grief over the death of persons in the accident. She also wished speedy recovery to the injured. She said the district administration had been instructed to provide all possible help to the bereaved families and medical aid to the injured.

Thirteen persons, including 2 drivers of both the vehicles, were killed and 29 others were injured in a head-on collision between the college bus of Shri Ram Institute of Management and Technology and a truck on National Highway No. 73-A near Manakpur village on April 28. She added that she had directed the district administration to take immediate steps to regulate the movement of heavy vehicles within the jurisdiction of the district during peak hours.

Faridabad, May 2
A large number of owners of houses and shopkeepers, who have been put on notice by the Municipal Corporation of Faridabad (MCF) to get the status of their dwelling units changed to the “commercial” category through change in land use(CLU), today launched an agitation against the move.

The protesters, under the banner of the Faridabad Beopar Mandal, wore black badges as a mark of protest. They held a protest march, which began from the headquarters of the beopar mandal and terminated at the office of the MCF.

The protesters sat in dharna outside the MCF office. Leaders of the Haryana Janhit Congress and the BJP were also present at the dharna site.

Addressing the protesters, president of the beopar mandal Jagdish Bhatia said they would not relent and the agitation would be intensified in the next phase if the government failed to respond to their concerns.

Bhatia announced that the dharna would continue for a fortnight.