Chandigarh, June 24
Economic considerations, coupled with government initiatives, are aiding crop diversification in Haryana. The state has been successful in weaning farmers away from the wheat-paddy rotation to wheat and cotton rotation in at least five districts of the state.

Thanks to the high prices fetched by cotton growers last year, more than 1,00,000 hectares has been brought under cotton cultivation this year, replacing mainly paddy and other crops like cane . As against 4.92 lakh hectares under cotton last year, the area under cotton this year has increased to 5.98 lakh hectares. Comparatively, the area under paddy cultivation is down by 50,000 hectares this year.

The change in crop rotation has been reported in Sirsa, Fatehabad, Hisar, Bhiwani and Jind districts. These districts have traditionally been growing cotton, but more and more area in these districts had shifted to the wheat-paddy crop cycle over the years . This crop cycle is adversely impacting soil, besides leading to depletion of underground water.

Officials in the Agriculture Department said more than 1,00,000 hectares in these five districts had been added for cotton cultivation.

Though the reason for increase in the area under cotton is largely to do with the high prices fetched by cotton last year, the government, too, banked on creating awareness about the high returns fetched by cotton to ensure that more and more farmers shifted to growing cotton. “Last year, farmers fetched exceptionally high prices for cotton. The prices went to a record high of over Rs 6,500 per quintal, giving huge profits to its growers . Even today, cotton prices are over Rs 4,500 per quintal. We used this information to lure farmers and promote diversification from paddy to cotton, and our efforts have borne fruit,” said BS Duggal, additional director, Agriculture Department.

Duggal said they had also started a campaign to lure farmers to grow guar instead of paddy. “We had set a target of bringing 3,00,000 hectares under guar cultivation as against 2.56 lakh hectares last year. But because farmers saw higher gains coming from cotton, they were more inclined towards cotton cultivation. But we have still managed to bring 2.80 lakh hectares under guar cultivation,” he added. 

Sirsa, June 24
As the monsoon draws nearer, the safety of large quantities of wheat stacked in the open by various government agencies is becoming a cause of major concern for the authorities.

According to information received from various government procurement agencies, nearly 80 per cent of total wheat available with the agencies is lying in the open at the mercy of the rain gods.

Hafed, which has the maximum wheat stock in the district, has stacked 4,58, 890 metric tonnes (nearly 92 lakh bags) of wheat under the open sky in its various storehouses in the district.

Against this, only 26 lakh bags belonging to the agency are stacked in the covered warehouses. Confed, another procurement agency of the state government, has stacked 95,211 MT (19 lakh bags) in the open, while only 3,570 MT of its stock is under the roof.

Around 2,19,541 MT (nearly 44 lakh bags) wheat belonging to the Food and Supplies Department of the state government is also under risk of rotting in the coming monsoon in the open. Only 21,694 MT of the agency is under the covered storehouses. The Haryana Warehousing Corporation, too, has 1,14,842 MT of its wheat lying in the open and is at high risk of decaying during rains.

Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, DC, called a meeting of senior officials of the procurement agencies in his office today to take stock of the situation. He said the procurement agencies had been directed to take all necessary steps for safeguarding the government wheat from rains. Over 1.70 lakh bags of wheat belonging to the Haryana State Warehousing Corporation had rotten due to floods during last year’s monsoon at Bani village.

The wheat was so badly damaged that the agency could get less than Rs 1 per kg for the rotten wheat in the open auction. The agencies are supposed to cover the wheat lying in the open by tarpaulins during the monsoon.

Panipat, June 24
The Haryana Power Engineers Association (HPEA) has decided to launch an agitation in protest against the non-fulfilment of their demands pending for the last two years and have served a 45-day notice to four power utilities.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the executive committee of the association.

The engineers lamented that the management had paid no heed to their demands despite repeated requests, leaving them with no other option but to take the path of confrontation to get their demands accepted.

RS Dahiya, president, Haryana Power Engineers Federation, said the engineers had served a 45-day ultimatum on the utilities to solve their problems or face protests.

The engineers had been demanding parity in the pay scales of assistant engineers (AE) working in discoms and their counterparts in other departments. Though Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has granted a pay scale of Rs 14,880 to the AEs, the other three utilities have so far denied this scale to their engineers.

Dahiya said the AEs of the neighbouring states were better placed in terms of pay scales as they drew an initial salary of Rs14,880 with a grade pay of Rs 5,400, which was not the case in Haryana.

The association had also been demanding the filling of vacant posts in the power utilities, including those of its chairman and director.

Samalkha, June 24
Call it lack of official will or political interference, the move to get government land worth several crores, which has been allegedly encroached upon by commission agents in the local grain market, vacated seems to have hit a roadblock.

As many as 109 shops of the total 151 in the market have allegedly encroached upon 6,562.65 square yards of government land, meant for roads and laying sewer pipes.

The market value of the land in question was estimated at around Rs 24.11 crore two years ago after which no such survey has been conducted. However, till date the encroachments have not been removed.

The Haryana Lokayukta had asked the government to file recovery suits against retired officials of the Haryana State Agricultural Marketing Board who had failed to check these encroachments during their tenure.

The Lokayukta had also asked the board to chargesheet seven senior officials for having failed to check the encroachments.

As many as 21 executive engineers, 10 district marketing enforcement officers and 12 secretaries-cum-executive officers have remained posted here, but all of them failed to get the encroachments removed.

Officials of the board maintain that every time they go to remove the encroachments, commission agents, some of whom are politically well-connected, put up a strong resistance and “topple their move”. The board had even blamed the local administration and the police for having failed to provide them adequate security to carry out anti-encroachment drives in the grain market.

In November last year, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had asked the Agriculture Minister to intervene and find a solution to get the encroachments removed. However, the encroachments continue to exist.

Social activist PP Kapoor, who had launched a campaign against the encroachments using the RTI Act to thwart an alleged move by the commission agents to get the encroached land registered in their names, said it was unfortunate that the “law failed to take its own course against the encroachers”. “Though, the Haryana Lokayukta did initiate some action against the officials of the board, the encroachments have not been removed till date,” said Kapoor.

Hisar, June 24
To protect the victims and the witnesses of the Mirchpur incident, the police has deployed 17 senior police officials and 203 security personnel in the village, Tanwar Farmhouse and at the residence of Kamla, widow of Tara Chand, who died in the violence and is now residing at the Mini Secretariat Colony here.

Under this security cover Kamla and her three sons have three personal security officers (PSOs) each while witness Satyawan has two PSOs while a PSO each has been provided to 47 witnesses residing in Mirchpur.

An official spokesman said here today that the police had provided adequate security to all concerned and had made arrangements to maintain law and order as per the directions of the Supreme Court and higher authorities

As many as 78 personnel from the HAP, 31 from the district police and 64 from the CRPF had been deployed at the police post in Mirchpur.

As many as 11 police personnel had been assigned the duty of PSOs to witnesses while three officers — the DSP, HQ, Hisar; tne SHO, Sadar, Hisar; and in charge of the police post at Azad Nagar — had been deputed as checking officers at Tanwar Farmhouse here. 

Chandigarh, June 24
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that 10 additional marks for admission to the MD course will be given to doctors, who have done their MBBS from Haryana and are members of the Haryana Civil Medical Services.

The directions by the vacation Division Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice Ritu Bahri came on an appeal filed against the orders of a single Judge.

Challenging the order, the doctors working in Haryana had claimed the single Judge had upheld the decision to allow 10 additional marks to doctors holding Haryana domicile with plus two-examination from the state.

The doctors had claimed as a result of the decision, mentioned in the prospectus for admission to the MD course, they were at a disadvantage as a large number of doctors holding state domicile would have an edge on them even though they had been working in Haryana for long.

Karnal, June 24
Following the allegation of deceased ex-sarpanch Karam Singh’s family members that the main accused have not even been questioned by the police, the State Crime Bureau (SCB) disclosed today that former Transport Minister Om Praksah Jain and then Chief Parliamentary Secretary Zila Ram Sharma have also been booked under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Sharad Kumar, ADGP, crime, told the Tribune that both former minister and CPS had been booked under sections 7, 13 (1) d and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, and their staff members had been interrogated.

“The bureau is awaiting the final postmortem report which would be made available on Monday,” he added.

Earlier, the viscera report had endorsed the postmortem report that the ex-sarpanch’s death was caused by a poisonous substance (celphos) and not due to pricking that was superficial

The mysterious death of Karam Singh on June 7, followed by the death of his cousin, Chamel Singh, three days later, had sent shockwaves in the area. The matter became murkier following allegations made by Karam Singh’s son that a bribe of Rs 12.45 lakh was paid to then Chief Parliamentary Secretary Zile Ram Sharma and Transport Minister Om Prakash Jain for three petty jobs.

He had alleged that his father had even written letters to the Chief minister, the DC and the SP, saying that Rs 4.95 lakh was allegedly paid to the CPS for a post of constable while Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh were paid to then Transport Minister Om Prakash Jain for the posts of conductor and clerk, respectively.

Rajinder, the deceased’s son, said his family members were not being updated about the day-to-day developments and the pace of investigations was rather slow. He claimed that even the viscera report had not been communicated to them. He reiterated the demand for a CBI inquiry.

Meanwhile, Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) supremo Kuldeep Bhishnoi, who visited the family today, lashed out at the state government for not arresting the main accused. The sordid incident, the HJC leader said, was a pointer to rampant corruption in the state, especially in the appointment to government jobs.

Rewari, June 24
Two persons died while three were injured in road accidents in the district yesterday.

Mahesh Chand (52), an ex-serviceman of Alwar district in Rajasthan, was killed while his son, Jitender, sustained injuries when their motorcycle collided with a canter on the Narnaul-Rewari road. The mishap took place when they were on their way to Rewari while the canter was going towards Narnaul.

In another incident, Ram Pukar (45), a resident of Siwan district in Bihar, was killed while two other occupants of a tempo, including its driver, were injured, when the tempo was hit by a bus at Sohna T-point at Dharuhera.