Chandigarh, June 27
The state gvernment has decided not to give permission for any kind of outlets on any mainline, branch line or feeder channel for rice shoots under its rice shoot policy for kharif, 2011.

A temporary rice shoot is an outlet dug in an irrigation channel with the objective of delivering discharge over and above the water allowance of the area, exclusively for rice cultivation.

Outlining broad contours of the rice shoot policy here today, a spokesman of the Irrigation Department said these would not be given on those channels the tails of which did not get proper and authorised irrigation in the past two years. The supply to rice shoot outlets would be made only after ensuring authorised supply to other farmers on regular outlets. No temporary rice shoots would be sanctioned to those found guilty of unauthorised irrigation in the previous year.

The minimum area for a temporary rice shoot would be 20 acres. The traditional rice shoots would have priority over new temporary ones. However, while allowing traditional rice shoots, no fresh application will be required and only a processing fee will have to be deposited at the time of agreement after the executive engineer concerned

says that there is no violation of the approved policy in the previous year. No application for sanction of rice shoots would be entertained without the requisite application.

Under the policy, rice shoots running continuously for the past three years would be treated as traditional rice shoots. No rice shoot would be allowed where sathi paddy (60-day crop) has been sown in a canal-irrigated area and such type of rice shoots should be cancelled as the government had already banned the cultivation of sathi paddy, the spokesman added.

Fatehabad, June 27
Angry villagers today blocked traffic on the Tohana-Hisar road for over two hours against erratic supply of power to Samain village near Tohana in the district today.

Villagers assembled on the highway at about 8 am and erected blockades on the road to stop the free flow of vehicular traffic.

Long queues of vehicles were witnessed on both sides of the road causing a lot of harassment for the commuters, especially women and children.

“We have been virtually getting no power for the past five days,” alleged a farmer, Satbir Singh.

The farmers alleged that at a time when their power requirement was at the peak due to the paddy transplantation season, the authorities had left them high and dry by denying them power.

Even the domestic supply of electricity is poor and the villages have to live without fans or other electrical devices in this hot and humid season, alleged the villagers.

The tehsildar, Virender Bhardwaj, SHO Shiv Kumar Sharma, and an SDO of the DHBVN reached there and tried to persuade the villagers.

DHBVN authorities have explained that a 16-MV transformer in their 132-KV power substation at Tohana had burnt five days ago leading to a power problem in the area,” Bhardwaj maintained.

He assured villagers that they would start getting regular supply of electricity from June 30. The villagers lifted the road blockade after the authorities’ assurance them.

Chandigarh, June 27
The Haryana Town and Country Planning Department has issued guidelines for processing the applications for allotment of plots or flats to the economically weaker sections (EWS) in the licensed colonies.

A spokesman of the department said here today that the allotment of EWS plots and flats in the licenced colonies was to be done through a draw of lots in the presence of a Committee consisting of the Deputy Commissioner concerned or his representative (at least of the HCS cadre ), Senior Town Planner of the circle, a representative of the Director-General, Town and Country Plannning Department and the developer and coloniser concerned.

After the closing date for submission of applications, the coloniser concerned would submit within three weeks a list of the applications received as per the categories of preferences for allotment in the office of the Senior Town Planner concerned.

He said that the Senior Town Planner concerned would check whether the coloniser had followed the procedure for issuing advertisements inviting applications for allotment of EWS plots or flats. If it was noticed that the coloniser had not followed the procedure, he would be asked to do it again as per the procedure of the policy and a report be sent to directorate for taking penal action against the coloniser.

He said the number of EWS plots or flats included in the advertisement would be checked with the corresponding approved layout plans or building plans. Scrutiny of allapplications received would be carried out as per the policy parameters. 

If some ineligible applications were found, the coloniser might be instructed to return the same by giving the grounds on which the applications had been held ineligible. All actions would be completed within four weeks and the Senior Town Planner concerned would submit a report in the directorate, with a request for fixing the date for draw of lots. 

Karnal, June 27
Anguished over the tardy pace of investigations in former sarpanch Karam Singh’s murder case, the Sain Samaj today decided to intensify the agitation while the family members of the deceased demanded “narco test” of both former Transport Minister Om Prakash Jain and CPS Zile Ram Sharma, named as the main accused in the case.

The Sain Samaj at its meeting attended by representatives of 36 biradaris (clans) announced to hold a massive demonstration and courted arrest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on July 2. The barbers across the state would also keep their shops closed on that day to lodge their protest.

Rajinder Singh, son of the deceased sarpanch, rued that even after 20 days of “murder” the real culprits had not been arrested . On the contrary, pressure was being mounted on family members by the government and political leaders in this connection, he added.

He alleged the government was trying to shield the main accused because they had played a key role in formation of the government after the Assembly elections in 2009. The case was handed over to the crime branch for investigation but the family members were not satisfied and demanded a CBI inquiry.

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

The police has also booked both former minister and CPS under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Sirsa, June 27
Abhey Singh Chautala, INLD MLA from Ellenabad, today lambasted the government for its ‘failure’ to provide enough power to farmers for the paddy season.

Addressing a series of meetings under the INLD’s mass contact programme today, Abhey Singh alleged that farmers had been complaining about erratic supply of power.

Terming the Haryana government as anti-farmer, Chautala alleged that neither adequate power nor canal water was available. After the hike in the prices of diesel, the running the tubewells on generators had become prohibitive.

Abhey Singh Chautala accused the district authorities of misleading people on the flood-prevention measures, alleging that nothing had been done to save people from floods though the monsoon had arrived. Chautala alleged that whatever the authorities had been claiming to have done in the name of flood-prevention measures was on the paper only.

Rohtak, June 27
The city Bhupinder Singh Hooda, CM, belongs to has got two senior officials. The city had been rendered headless with a majority of the top brass proceeding on leave last week .

Tarun Bajaj took charge as Commissioner, Rohtak Range, today. The post had fallen vacant after the retirement of the last incumbent about a month back. The post had been looked after by the Commissioner, Hisar Range.

The government has also given charge of the office of Rohtak Deputy Commissioner to Mr Chander Prakash, DC, Jhajjar.

Satish Balan, SSP, also resumed duty this morning. The development follows the publication of a story in

The Tribune recently about senior posts lying vacant.

Most senior officials, included the DC, SSP and the IG, had gone on leave in the past week, leaving the district to be managed by HCS and Haryana Police Service (HPS) officials.

While the DC had proceeded on leave on a two-month training programme, the SSP had gone on leave for over a week. The IG , Rohtak range, had also gone on leave to attend a function abroad.This had been perhaps the first time that there was no IAS and IPS official to look after the administration.

With the top brass on leave, the seniormost official left in the district administration was the ADC while an ASP had been looking after the job of the district police chief. 

Gurgaon, June 27
PC Meena, Deputy Commissioner, today fixed time limits for the delivery of various citizen services in the district

Meena disclosed that a time period of 15 days had been fixed for the issuance of a new ration card. In case the applicant submits surrender certificate of his/her previous ration card, he should be issued a new card in seven days.

Similarly, the time for issuing a duplicate ration card and inclusion or deletion of family members’ names is to be done within seven days. The time limit for change of address with same jurisdiction is three days while the surrender certificate is to be issued on the same day.

The applications for these services are to be made to the Inspector of Food and Supplies. In case of delay in these services, complaint can be made to the District Food and Supplies Controller.

The time limit for issuing the SC/ST/OBC as well as resident/domicile certificates has been fixed at seven days and the application has to be submitted to the Tehsildar. The SDO (Civil) is the authority for receiving complaints in case of delay. The time limit for issuing learners’ driving licence is five days.

Chandigarh, June 27
The Centre has sought the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) advice on modalities of a high-level probe into allegations of misuse of environment funds by the Haryana Government levelled by Sanjiv Chaturvedi, IFS official.

In his reply to Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Forest Minister, Haryana, sent on June 20, Jairam Ramesh, Union Enviroment Minister, has said, “The documentary evidence submitted by Chaturvedi is robust and needs to be investigated.” Yadav had written to the Union Minister questioning a Central Government panel report, which recommended a CBI probe into Chaturvedi’s alleged harassment and the misuse of funds by the state government. “We are seeking the advice of the CVC on the modalities of this investigation,” the letter to Yadav adds.

In his letter, Yadav had asked the Union Minister to “review” the ministry's decision on Chaturvedi. The latter’s suspension was revoked by the President earlier this year following submission of the report by the two-member Environment Ministry panel.

Turning down Yadav’s request, the Union Minister’s letter states, “The matter has been examined by us in detail. We find no justification for reviewing our earlier order dated January 19 revoking the chargesheet filed against Chaturvedi.” The panel had found that senior state officials had harassed Chaturvedi for bringing the “scam” of misusing of funds for environment, to light. 

Gurgaon, June 27
Now, residents of the Gurgaon Municipal Corporation (MCG) area can get birth and death certificates without having to visit any government office. The facility was inaugurated by PC Meena, Deputy Commissioner, here today. From tomorrow evening, the residents would be able to make use of this facility.

Meena said there are about 180 hospitals in the MCG area and it had been made mandatory for all of them to upload the information regarding births and deaths at their hospitals on the MCG website - www.mcg.gov.in on daily basis.

The certificate bearing digitalised signature of the issuing authority will be placed on the e-mail of the hospital, the printout of which can be taken and handed over to the family concerned after receiving a fee of Rs 12.

If the family has left the hospital, they can apply for the birth or death certificate online on the MCG website and take printout themselves.

Sirsa, June 27
The police today claimed to have unearthed a nexus of cheating through the mobile phone and arrested an Andhra Pradesh resident in this connection.

A police spokesperson identified the accused as Mohammad Alam, a resident of Attru Colony of Hyderabad city of Andhra Pradesh.

Om Prakash, a resident of Rajpura Majra that falls under Sadar Police Station, Dabwali, had lodged a complaint that he had received a call on his mobile on September 18, last year, informing him that his mobile number had been selected for a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh.

The caller then gave him an account number and told him that he would have to deposit a sum of Rs 1 lakh so that he could be given his prize money, according to the organisation’s rules.

In response to this, Om Prakash, however, deposited an amount of Rs 74,000 in the given account number but when he called the person on the number from which he had received the call, he was told that he had not won any such prize.

The complainant had also alleged that upon asking for refund, he was threatened with dire consequences by the person who received his call. The police said it had arrested Mohammad Alam and seized an amount of Rs 25,000 from him.

Ballabhgarh (Faridabad), June 27
The bodies of two youths, stabbed to death, were found by the police along the Delhi-Mathura national highway here late last night.

The bodies were spotted by a police patrol team, perhaps a couple of hours after the murder. The dead have been identified as Manoj and Surjeet, residents of nearby Kanauli and Mandhauli villages, respectively. The deceased were friends and were in their early twenties. While Manoj owned a garment shop at SRS Mall in Sector 12 in Faridabad, Surjeet worked with a “Pizza Hut” in the same mall.

The police has registered an FIR against Sachin, also a resident of Kanauli and three others. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint of Teekan Singh, father of Manoj. According to his complaint, Sachin’s cousin had borrowed Rs 10,000 from him and was avoiding paying it back.There was a tiff with Sachin and his family in the past on the issue. A panchayat was held in Kanauli on the issue and the matter was sorted out.

The police version is that six youths, including the accused and the deceased, reached Brijwaasi hotel (also known as Janata hotel), located along the national highway, from Sector 3. They were reported to be under the influence of liquor. They dined in the hotel from where they dispersed late in the night.The murders were committed after the group left the hotel. According to the ACP, Ballabgarh, , the police was in the process of reconstructing the sequence of events especially after the group left the hotel and the murders took place.

A police patrol team spotted a body in a pool of blood near the hotel. Later the police followed a trail of blood leading to the second dead body in a nearby agriculture field. Both the bodies had several wounds, a majority of them below the waist and on the vital parts.

The police says that Manoj had called up his wife, a couple of hours before his murder, to say that he was in the company of Sachin at a hotel and would have his dinner with him.

Gurgaon, June 27
Two persons, Raj Kumar, alias Raju, of Rithoj village and Dharmender Tanwar, alias Dharma, of Tigra village, were gunned down at Rithoj village in the district late last night.

Raju and Tanwar were travelling in an Alto car (HR-26-AD-4887) when a white Scorpio vehicle overtook them and stopped in front of the car, blocking the way.

The Scorpio occupants then opened fire at those of Alto from close range and fled.

Villagers and passersby rushed to the scene of crime and found Raju dead. Tanwar also succumbed to his bullet injuries on the way to a hospital.

According to police sources, both Raju and Tanwar worked as property dealers and Tanwar was involved in several criminal cases earlier as well.

They said the incident seemed to be an outcome of some professional /criminal rivalry.

However, Tanwar’s brother, Kalu, denied this and maintained that Dharmender recently had an altercation with certain persons, which could have led to his murder.

Meanwhile, the police has registered a case of murder and a hunt was on to nab the suspects.