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Wheat Procurement
Wheat arrivals pick up in Ambala
Concession for farmers
high court |
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HAU to help set up farm varsity in Malawi
Dalits being victimised: CPM leader
Rs 5.65 lakh looted from ATM
Rs 1.05 lakh looted from petrol pump owner
2 couples get security
Road blocked over water connection
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Wheat Procurement
Sirsa, May 4 “We don’t have any space left for fresh arrivals of wheat as the entire space available in the grain market has been occupied by bags of wheat,” alleged Gurdial Mehta, a former president of the Sirsa Grain Market Traders Association. He said in the absence on any check by the authorities, contractors had been demanding Rs 300 to Rs 500 per trolley in the name of early lifting of stocks from the plinths of traders. He alleged that the payments of the traders were also being delayed by the agencies. “While the District Food and Supplies Department has not issued any payments after the stocks purchased by them on April 27, Hafed is yet to issue payments in lieu of stocks procured after April 25,” alleged Mehta. The government, he said, claimed that the payment was being made within 72 hours of the procurement. The Deputy Food and Supplies Controller was not available on the phone, while Suresh Jawa, district manager of Hafed, maintained that their agency did not make payment based on their date of procurement, but the payments were made on the day of the actual lifting of the stocks. “We have an online system of payments, which are transferred to the accounts of the firms once the stocks are lifted from their shops,” Jawa said. Meanwhile, Sirsa is leading in wheat arrivals in Haryana where over 8.21 lakh tonnes of wheat has so far arrived in various grain markets of the district. Fatehabad, where over 6.10 lakh tonnes of wheat has arrived, is second in Haryana in the matter of wheat arrivals. An official spokesman said over 1.24 lakh tonnes of wheat had arrived in the mandis of the state yesterday, thus raising the total arrivals to over 60.68 lakh tonnes. Giving details of the wheat procured by the government agencies, he said over 21.08 lakh tonnes of wheat had been purchased by Hafed, over 15.89 lakh tonnes by the Food and Supplies Department, over 7.78 lakh tonnes by the Food Corporation of India, over 6.06 lakh tonnes by the Agro Industries Corporation, over 5.48 lakh tonnes by the Haryana Warehousing Corporation and over 4.34 lakh tonnes by Confed. |
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Wheat arrivals pick up in Ambala
Ambala, May 4 The DC said wheat arrivals in the 14 mandis in the district had picked up considerably during the last week. All measures were being taken that the farmers bringing their produce to the mandis did not face any harassment or inconvenience. Srow issued instructions to the officials of the different procurement agencies to ensure that there were adequate arrangements of proper lighting at the sheds and there was enough stock of tarpaulins to cover the wheat stocks. He said he had instructed all sub-divisional magistrates to undertake a tour of the mandis in their subdivision on daily basis and review the situation with the officials of the procurement agencies. He said 1,64,947 tonnes of wheat arrived in all 14 mandis in the district till today. |
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Concession for farmers
Chandigarh, May 4 So far the farmers had to pay 10 per cent of the construction cost as their share. Announcing this here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said now the farmers’ share of the cost would be paid by the Haryana Rural Development Fund Board. The decision would provide relief to the farming community to the tune of Rs 6.33 crore in the districts of
Fatehabad, Sirsa, Kaithal, Rewari, Jind, Hisar, Ambala, Karnal,
Kurukshetra, Bhiwani, Panipat, Sonepat, Mahendragarh, Jhajjar and Rohtak.
Hooda said 22 “jal samitis each of Fatehabad and Sirsa districts would be benefited to the tune of Rs 66.10 lakh and Rs.69.43
lakh, respectively. In Kaithal district, 32 “jal samitis” and eight of Rewari would be benefited by Rs 81.43 lakh and Rs 19.27
lakh, respectively. |
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high court
Chandigarh, May 4 The judgment is significant as reimbursement claim was denied to the commission’s former member, Gobind
Thukral, on the grounds that he was a “non-official” member. The state Chief Secretary, too, had asserted that “non-official members of the commission are not government servants and rather they serve in connection with the affairs of the state”. Allowing Thukral’s petition filed through counsel JS
Toor, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The distinction sought to be drawn by the respondents may not appear justified. It could not be disputed before me that the petitioner was entitled to medical reimbursement while he was serving as a member of the commission. “Why the petitioner would not be entitled to medical reimbursement once he is a pensioner? In my view, the payment of pension, be it from the consolidated fund or any other fund, is made by the state and hence it is not ‘possible’ to urge that the petitioner is not a pensioner of the Haryana Government. That distinction to me would appear to be unjust and inequitable and artificially pressed”. Justice Ranjit Singh observed: The petitioner underwent an operation of his right eye at the PGI, Chandigarh. For his admission and treatment, the petitioner has incurred expenses of Rs 13,180. “On July 11, 2007, the petitioner submitted his claim. He was apprised that facilities of medical reimbursement are available to government employees”. Justice Ranjit Singh further ruled: “If the essence of the provisions is that medical reimbursement is allowed to a government pensioner, there is much weight in the plea raised by the counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner is getting pension from the state. “Admittedly, the petitioner is in receipt of pension. To me, the source from which the petitioner is drawing pension would sound immaterial. His pension is debated and voted by the state Assembly…. Retired employees are recipients of pension. So is the petitioner.” Justice Ranjit Singh concluded: “One cannot ignore that two of the similarly situated members have earlier been allowed medical reimbursement and now the same concession has been denied to the petitioner, which does not appear to be fair. The writ petition, therefore, deserves to be allowed”. “Direction is hereby issued to reimburse the petitioner the medical expenditure incurred by him while getting eye treatment from the
PGI, Chandigarh”. |
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Reimposition of House Tax, Hike in Collector Rates
Sirsa, May 4 The INLD activists submitted memorandums addressed to the Governor to the local authorities on these issues. Padam Jain, district president of the INLD, led the demonstration in Sirsa, while MLAs Krishan Kamboj and Charanjit Singh led the agitators at Rania and Kalanwali, respectively, and former MLAs Sita Ram and Bhagi Ram led the party’s protests at Dabwali and Ellenabad, respectively. Jain said the state government had shown its anti-people face by imposing the house tax. He alleged that the Congress had stabbed people in their back, as the party had come to power on the promise of waiving the house tax. FATEHABAD: Former MLA Swatantar Bala Chaudhary led the INLD workers in their demonstration against house tax, VAT and hike in collector rates of immovable property. The protesters started from Jat Dharamshala and marched in procession to the mini-secretariat, where they submitted a memorandum to SDM Baljit Singh. Former MLA Nishan Singh led the INLD demonstration at Tohana while MLA Gian Chand Odh headed the procession at Ratia. ROHTAK/JIND: Activists of the INLD staged demonstrations at all the district and sub-divisional headquarters to lodge their protest over various issues, including the recent hike in collector (circle) rates of land, VAT, re-imposition of house tax and growing corruption in the state. The party submitted a memorandum to the Governor and sought free-of-cost ration up to 25 kg to each BPL family every month. The INLD would continue to raise the issue till the government rolls back the hike in collector rates. REWARI: INLD activists led by their district president Sunil Chaudhary and state executive committee member Satish Yadav staged a demonstration here on Wednesday in protest against the imposition of house tax. KURUKSHETRA:
INLD activists led by state president and former Haryana minister Ashok Arora staged a demonstration against anti-people decisions, including increase in collector rates, VAT tax and the house tax, in front of the mini-secretariat here on Wednesday. |
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HAU to help set up farm varsity in Malawi
Hisar, May 4
Senior officers and scientists of HAU were present at the meeting. The Malawi delegation was led by Moses Kwapta, Principal of the Bunda College of Agriculture.
Kwapta said the Malawi government wanted to upgrade the Buda college to the level of a university. Since Malawi had the same weather conditions as Haryana, it was appropriate that it sought the help of HAU in establishing the new university. Khokhar said HAU would extend all help in setting up the new university. He said HAU had recently signed agreements with several international research institutions for exchange of scientists for study and research. An agreement to this effect was also likely to be signed with Israel. The Malawi delegation toured all constituent colleges, research farms and other places of interest on the HAU campus. They were taken round the campus by Human Resources Director RK
Kashyap. |
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Dalits being victimised: CPM leader
Panchkula, May 4 Suhasini alleged that Hooda and his party leaders were indulging in vote bank politics and were “supporting criminals”, who garnered votes for the ruling Congress government in the state. She said the raising of voice by Dalits in Mirchpur village and Bataud village was significant as it showed that people of economically weaker sections were now fighting for their rights. Later, in a memorandum to DGP Ranjiv Dalal, Suhasini gave an ultimatum of five days for the arrest of the accused against whom cases have been registered for attacking Dalits of Bataud village. Additional DGP BS Sandhu accepted the memorandum on behalf of the DGP. Tension had gripped the village as a group of Dalits objected to the cultivation on shamlat land by persons belonging to an upper caste. |
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Rs 5.65 lakh looted from ATM
Ambala, May 4 The cash was not siphoned off through any ATM card, but was taken out by opening the chest of the machine. Interestingly, the ATM centre is located next to the 24-hour police post of the hospital. The installation work of the ATM was completed at 11 pm on Monday. Cash of Rs 6 lakh was put into the ATM machine and Rs 35,000 was withdrawn from the ATM on trial basis. One of the bank officials noticed that the glass door of the ATM and the chest was open. The bank officials postponed the inauguration function. According to bank sources, the bank employee, who had put the cash in the machine, has a secrete password with which he opened the chest while putting the money there. The miscreant, who took the cash, was aware of the secret password and was expert in operating the ATM machine, they added. Dinesh Bhardwaj, lead manager of the bank, said the CCTV camera was operational at the time of the incident, but the miscreant deleted the footages from the ATM computer. The footage pointed out that the person remained in the ATM cabin for at least an hour and the incident occurred after midnight, he added. |
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Rs 1.05 lakh looted from petrol pump owner
Jind, May 4 According to the police, the incident took place around 9 pm when the owner of the petrol pump, Nafe Singh, a resident of Urban Estate here, left the pump for his home. He was carrying an amount of Rs 1.05 lakh with him and was on a motorcycle when the miscreants, who were also on a bike, accosted him. The armed youths assaulted him and snatched the cash from him. They threatened to kill him if he resisted their loot attempt. Meanwhile, in another incident, the police has registered a case against some unidentified youths for fraudulently withdrawing an amount of Rs 23,700 through an ATM from the account of a woman at Safidon town in the district. The victim, Santosh Devi, told the police in her complaint that after she failed to operate her ATM card properly, the youths, who were present inside an ATM booth of the State Bank of Patiala, offered her help and in the process, whe was duped. This is the fourth such incident in the district in the past 12 days. |
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2 couples get security
Jind, May 4 One of the couples, Sadhu Ram (22) and Sheetal (19), told the police that they hailed from Badhana and Nagura villages, respectively, and had got married against the wishes of their families. The second couple, Somvir (22) and
Sushina, belonging to Ponkarikheri and Kalwa villages, respectively, got married on April 9 against the wishes of their parents.
— TNS |
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Road blocked over water connection
Faridabad, May 4 The protesters relented only when the officials of the civic body assured them to provide the connection shortly. Renu Sagar, a resident of Jeevan Nagar, alleged that the civic authorities were delaying the installation of the connection even after an official sanction. Inquiries reveal that the connection had to provided from the water pipe already laid in adjoining Gochi village. However, residents of Gochi were hostile to the idea of providing subsidiary water connection from the network in the village to other areas. |
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