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Independents unite to stave off Cong heat
Pollution Menace
Soil health cards issued to over 10 lakh farmers
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Old-age Pension
Hansi-Butana Canal
XEN, suspended JE fear threat to life from each other
Chautala Brothers’ Pleas in Disproportionate Assets Case
Ex-Finance Minister Shorewala dies
Review rejection of applications, CIC tells bank
Jhinda faction protests for separate SGPC
Policeman duped
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Independents unite to stave off Cong heat
Chandigarh, July 3 Sources said the Independents supporting the government since it came to power in October, 2009, have been regularly meeting over the past month, usually at Minister of State Gopal Kanda’s farmhouse in Gurgaon to deliberate as to how best they can “protect” themselves when the heat is turned on by the Congress top brass in the state. Sources said the trigger for holding such meetings has come from the “forced” resignation of former Transport Minister OP Jain whose name cropped up in the murder a former sarpanch of a village in Karnal. Even as the Independents were smarting over this move by the government, Kanda’s public rebuke at a function in Sirsa is learnt to have prompted the Independents to “get together” to ward off pressure from the Congress in future. Sources among the Independents said the Congress was able to “extract” Jain’s resignation because he made the mistake of trying to deal with the problem himself, taking none of the other Independents into confidence. “Had Jain spoken to anyone of us, we could have a t least reasoned with the government and presented his point of view. While Jain’s case may be an open-and-shut case for now as far as the Independents are concerned, sources said that Kanda’s recent public rebuke by the Congress top brass over his failure to invite Sirsa Congress MP Ashok Tanwar’s to a function has prompted Independents to meet regularly and exchange notes. The main idea is to reap the benefits of increased bargaining power by operating as a united front and ensure to escape a repeat of the Jain episode. While they project a united face, the government has no reason to worry yet. Sources said that all of them are committed to lending support to the Congress government all through its five-year term. “We decided in favour of supporting the Congress solely because of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s clean image and we will stand by our commitment throughout its term. The meetings are only an attempt to have a support system to lean on just in case such an occasion arises,” an Independent said. The Independents’ unflinching support to the Congress is inevitable for obvious reasons since each has been accommodated as a minister of state or Chief Parliamentary Secretary. |
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Pollution Menace
Panipat, July 3 Around 10 years ago, the local civic body had conceived the idea of shifting the dairies outside the city. It had even identified a piece of land at Binjol village on the Jatal road in the district where it had carved out 147 plots that were to be allocated to the dairy owners. However, the project was hit by a scam in which those who did not own dairies managed to get plots allocated in their names. As many as 84 persons had given applications to the civic body for the allotment of the plots before 2005. Later, the names of 36 more aspirants were added to the list. As many as 44 persons were allotted plots and of whom 32 did not own a dairy. They included some councillors of the Panipat Municipal Committee. They were given these plots at a rate of Rs 800 per sq yard and had paid around Rs 2 lakh each for the plot. As the rates of the plots went up to Rs 5,000 a sq yard, these allottees sold the land and bagged huge profits. After the matter came to light, an inquiry was marked about three years ago to the then SDM, which is still pending. According to sources in the local civic body, in 2001 there were only 197 dairies in the city. The authorities had acquired land in the said village where 147 plots were craved out and 118 were allotted land there. However, not many shifted to the new site. In the meantime, the number of dairies in the city rose to over 500, which continue to pollute their adjoining areas. Even if the authorities today manage to shift the dairies there, still the land at Binjol village will not be able to accommodate all dairies that operate within the city limits. Till date only 14 of the over 500 dairies operating within the municipal limits have shifted to the new site. Dairy owners allege that work on infrastructure development like provision for sewer lines, roads and streetlights has not yet been completed. This despite the fact that the NCR Planning Board had sanctioned a major scheme for the shifting of milk dairies from a number cities in the state, including Rohtak, Sonepat, Gurgaon, Bahadurgarh and Panipat. The scheme was estimated to cost Rs 1,307 lakh of which Rs 980.25 lakh was a loan from the board while Rs 326.75 lakh was the municipal share. The MC had prepared a project for the sanctioning of Rs 33 lakh for repair of the infrastructure at the site last year, the fate of which is unknown. The authorities had even set two deadlines to shift the dairies outside the city limits, one in December 2008 and the other in December 2010, but nothing concrete could be achieved. Deputy Commissioner JS Ahlawat, who presided over a meeting of the district officials recently, said he had asked the authorities concerned to shift the dairies to the allotted land by August 15 this year. |
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Soil health cards issued to over 10 lakh farmers
Fatehabad, July 3 Agriculture Minister Paramvir Singh said today the state Agriculture Department had so far issued such cards to over 10 lakh farmers, 60,000 of them from Fatehabad. He said due to Haryana’s “best performance” in wheat production, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would give an award to the state at a function in New Delhi on July 16. The minister laid the foundation stone of a laboratory to test soil, water, seeds and pesticides in the vegetable market here today. He said the state government was committed to the welfare of the farmers. Subsidy up to 90 per cent was being provided to the farmers on agricultural implements, he said. The minister appealed to the farmers to come forward to take the benefit of the schemes introduced by the government for their welfare. He said the farmers were being encouraged to adopt the Israeli farming technology. As many as 16 plants were being set up with Israel’s farm technology in the state, he added. Prahlad Singh Gillankhera, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, emphasised the need for conserving water and appealed to the farmers to make judicious use of water. He urged farmers to take to alternative crops like cereals, besides the routine crops of cotton, paddy and wheat. Ashok Kumar Yadav, Director-General, Agriculture, said his department had been promoting summer moong and other pulses among farmers. He said summer moong had been sown on 40,000 hectares in the state. The minister gave away cheques to farmers with excellent results in crop production. |
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Old-age Pension
Addressing mediapersons at Bhuna in this district, Chautala alleged that the state government was steeped deep under debts and was not even in a position to pay salaries and perks of the MLAs, and added that it was not surprising that old-age pension of three or four months was still unpaid. Chautala maintained that his father Devi Lal had started old-age pension in Haryana and said whenever his party came to to power, he would ensure that every beneficiary got his or her pension sitting at home. The former Chief Minister termed as ridiculous the recent statement of Manmohan Singh that he was not a weak Prime Minister. “If he is not a weak PM, where was the need to call a meeting of editors and make such a statement?” Chautala asked. Chautala added that the statement had only confirmed the common belief that the Prime Minister was a puppet in the hands of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Flaying the land acquisition policy of the state government, Chautala alleged that the state government had been taking away fertile land of farmers in the name of industry and SEZs. He said it was perhaps for the first time in the history of Haryana that ministers had been booked for graft and allegations of murder had been levelled against them. Chautala demanded that the government should proceed against former minister OP Jain and former CPS Zile Ram like an ordinary citizen and should not show any leniency towards them. |
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Hansi-Butana Canal
Rohtak, July 3 Claiming that Haryana had been repairing and fortifying walls of the Hansi-Butana main branch canal, he said it did not need permission of the Punjab Government to do so. Vidrohi said since Punjab’s ruling party feared its defeat in the forthcoming elections in the state it had been indulging in such petty tactics to divert public attention from the real issues. Asking the people not to be mislead by such tactics, Vidrohi claimed that there was no threat of floods in Punjab by the fortification of walls of the Hansi- Butana canal. |
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XEN, suspended JE fear threat to life from each other
Sirsa, July 3 Jagdish Chander Jangra, Executive Engineer of the PHE, Division No. 3, and RS Saxena, Junior Engineer in the department (now under suspension), have both given written complaints to the police fearing threat to their lives from each other. In his complaint sent to the city police station on May 10, Jangra alleged that Saxena called him on his personal mobile on the night of May 1 and May 9 at odd hours and threatened him with dire consequences because he had sought Saxena’s explanation for dereliction of duty in the maintenance of public services. Saxena maintains that he called Jangra on his mobile to apprise him of some choked sewers and other public issues, but he allegedly went furious for calling him at odd hours. In his complaint, Saxena, who was placed under suspension by the department on May 19, has alleged in his complaint given to the police on June 30 that Jangra threatened him with dire consequences when he went to his office in connection with information sought under the RTI Act. He has alleged in his complaint that he feared danger to his life from the XEN. Saxena alleged that the collection of funds used for compensating the family of a child, who died by falling in an uncovered sewer was the root cause of the problem. “I wrote to higher officers on November 11, 2010, and sought 50 covers for uncovered manholes and specifically mentioned a manhole near Saria Rice Factory, which was dangerous for the public. However, the authorities did not pay heed to my demand and a five-year-old child lost his life by falling in the sewer on February 5, 2011,” said Saxena. The victim’s parents had lodged a complaint with the authorities, after which the district authorities had asked the officers concerned of the department to show cause why they should not be criminally prosecuted. Saxena alleged that his confrontation with the XEN began when “Jangra demanded Rs 2 lakh from him as his share of the compensation paid to the victim’s family.” Jangra, however, rubbished Saxena’s allegations and maintained that the JE had been acting out of frustration due to his suspension and departmental action taken against him in a case of making unfruitful expenditure. While residents have been complaining about choked sewers in various localities of the town, the spat between the two engineers is turning murkier by the day. |
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Chautala Brothers’ Pleas in Disproportionate Assets Case
New Delhi, July 3 A Bench comprising Justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur had reserved its judgment on January 27 at the conclusion of arguments by the CBI and the accused. While Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium, appearing for the CBI, had defended the agency’s move, senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi and UU Lalit had argued that their clients were sitting members of the Assembly and could not be prosecuted unless the Speaker gave his go-ahead. It was strange that the CBI had taken sanction from the Speaker to book their father, former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala, on corruption charges but had chosen no to do so in the case of Abhey and Ajay, the brothers’ counsel had contended. Abhay is accused of amassing unaccounted wealth to the extent of Rs 127 crore by misusing his official position as an MLA during 2000-05 and again from January 27, 2010. The trial court had taken note of the chargesheet on February 2, 2010. Ajay had Rs 27 crore worth of such wealth, the CBI said. |
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Ex-Finance Minister Shorewala dies
He was elected as an independent MLA for the first time in 1972, defeating Om Prabha Jain, a former Finance Minister. Later, he joined the Congress and was appointed as the chairman, Improvement Trust, in 1974. Shorewala was again elected as an MLA from Kaithal in 1996 as a Samata Party candidate. He later joined the then ruling Haryana Vikas Party and was inducted as the Finance Minister. However, after serving as the minister for two years he parted ways with Bansi Lal and along with some other MLAs extended support to Om Parkash Chautala, who formed the next government in the state. |
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Review rejection of applications, CIC tells bank
Gurgaon, July 3 Information Commissioner Deepak Sandhu gave this instruction to the bank authorities in her decision dated June 27, 2011, on an appeal filed against the refusal by the Kishangarh Renwal branch of the bank. She has asked the bank authorities to give reasons for the rejection of 38 of the 80 applications made under the PMRY. These applications were made during a period of five years prior to October 10, 2007. During the hearing, the respondent bank stated that each branch was given a target under the PMRY and it was possible that once the target had been achieved, the other applications were not considered. Taking a serious note of the casual approach of the bank authorities, the Information Commissioner directed the respondent bank to put in special efforts to locate the information sought by the appellant regarding the reasons for rejection of applications received by the branch and provide the same to the appellant within a month. |
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Jhinda faction protests for separate SGPC
Karnal, July 3 Supporters of the faction raised slogans demanding that Sikhs of Haryana should be granted the right to manage their religious places. Jhinda said there was wide resentment among the state Sikhs as the Congress had failed to redress this issue. He said the Congress had twice assured the Sikhs that it would facilitate the formation of a separate SGPC in Haryana in its election manifestos but nothing had been done till then. Later, the protesters took out a march from the city to the mini-secretariat where they handed over a memorandum, addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, to the Deputy Commissioner listing their demand. |
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Policeman duped
Fatehabad, July 3 The cop, Sham Lal, who has his account in the State Bank of India, has given a written complaint to DSP Shamsher Singh Dahiya after he failed to get any satisfactory explanation from the bank authorities. The ASI has alleged that a sum of Rs 14,000 has been withdrawn from his bank account on different occasions for online purchases from June 26 to July 1. He said he did not own a credit card and used an ATM card for withdrawals from the
bank. |
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Fatehabad, July 3
Kaithal, July 3