Fatehabad, July 4
Standing crops on over 100 acres were damaged after a breach in the Sukhchain distributary inundated fields near Hanspur village in this district in the early hours today.

A small breach occurred on a bank of the canal at about 5 am and soon it widened to over 100 metres.

“Paddy crop in my fields has been totally submerged. Now, I will have to transplant paddy again,” said a villager.

Farmers whose crops have been damaged due to the breach have demanded compensation.

Satish Jinawa, Executive Engineer, Water Services Division, Fatehabad, said the authorities had plugged the breach by 11 am and now work on strengthening the banks was in progress.

He said due to rain in the area last evening, farmers had closed outlets on the canal, which resulted in a breach at Lohgarh “burjee” near Hanspur village.

He maintained that the authorities acted swiftly and added that his men were able to plug the breach within hours of being informed.

Panipat, July 4
With its demand for a separate body to manage Sikh shrines in Haryana pending, the Nalvi faction of the Haryana Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has decided to mobilise support from religious groups in the state for the cause.

Didar Singh Nalvi, who has been spearheading this campaign, told The Tribune that Sikhs had reposed faith in the Congress after it promised to pave the way for a separate SGPC in Haryana twice in its election manifesto. However, nothing had been done till date.

Nalvi said the faction had been holding meetings with religious groups in Haryana to enlist their support to mount pressure on the state government for a separate SGPC.

Nalvi contended that in Haryana, Sikhs were governed by the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, which provided them with the right to have a separate body to run their religious shrines and not by the Sikh Gurdwaras Act, 1925.

He stated that Haryana, under the same act, constructed a separate WAKF board and universities but denied the Sikhs of their right to have a separate body which was unjust. He claimed that not allowing Sikhs of Haryana to form a separate body was a violation of the Punjab Reorganization Act of 1966.

Nalvi has shot off a letter to Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, listing their demand.

Chandigarh, July 4
The Union Government today approved the four-laning of the Yamunanagar-Ladwa-Karnal state highway. This project was being pursued vigorously by Haryana Chief Minister and PWD Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala with the Union government since long.

The Haryana PWD (B&R) had submitted the project report and other relevant documents to the Department of Economic Affairs of the Union Ministry of Finance.

The proposal of the state government for viability gap funding (VGF) for the project, including the Ladwa bypass on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis was cleared during the 32nd meeting of the empowered institutions for the scheme for financial support to PPPs in infrastructure held in Delhi today.

SC Choudhary, Financial Commissioner & Principal Secretary, Haryana PWD, and Mahesh Kumar, Engineer-in-Chief, Haryana PWD, made a presentation on the project during the meeting.

The total VGF for this project is Rs 110 crore, which is 28 per cent of the total project cost (TPC) of Rs 396 crore. The state government will spend Rs 96 crore on utility shifting, land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation of those whose land would be acquired, environment clearance and VGF beyond 20 per cent.

The concessionaire will be responsible for operations and maintenance (O&M) of the entire 53.5-km corridor till the end of the 20-year concession period.

Karnal, July 4
Horse riding as a sport has been revived at Sainik School, Kunjpura, Karnal, after a gap of 40 years. Horses have been purchased from the Remount and Veterinary Corps and Remount Training School and Depot, Saharanpur, for the purpose. These horses were trained by trainers of 2 Corps and the Police Training Academy, Madhuban, for four months.

The school has set up Golden Jubilee Horse Riding School. The horse riding school was inaugurated by Major-Gen Sher Singh, Chief of Staff, 2 Corps. He lauded the efforts of the administration in reviving horse riding after a long gap. He also gave mementoes to the trainers.

Sainik School is celebrating its golden jubilee year and to mark the celebrations the President visited the school on July 24, 2010. Many other functions such as an inter-school debate, a quiz contest, a cycle rally and a blood donation camp were held as part of the celebrations. The celebrations will culminate on founder’s day of the school on July 24.

At the school, cadets would be taught to “walk, trot and canter horses”. The cadets will also be trained to participate in competitive sports like “dressage, endurance riding, show jumping, tent pegging, polo and horse racing”.

Chandigarh, July 4
Haryana has managed to achieve 100 per cent success in preventing the cultivation of summer paddy, “saathi”, by farmers. Through its aggressive campaign, the state Agriculture Department has ensured that there is no paddy transplantation before mid-June. Instead the department has managed to give farmers an alternative source of income in the form of summer moong.

Though the Haryana Government has incorporated the Haryana Preservation of Sub Soil Water Act for two years now, this year the state Agriculture Department has ensured that there is no instance of sowing of summer paddy. Officials in the department told The Tribune that there were just two instances of early transplantation of summer paddy that were brought to their notice, and with the help of the local authorities, these nurseries of summer paddy were uprooted and fines imposed on the guilty farmers.

Saathi or summer paddy has a very high water requirement. It is transplanted in the fields in April and harvested by June-end, which means that farmers can get a third source of income (in between the wheat and paddy cycle). This is the reason that most farmers in Haryana had started cultivating this short-duration crop. But since there is almost no rain during this period, and “evapo-transpiration” rates are high, the cultivation of summer paddy leads to exploitation of groundwater and depletes both the water table and soil nutrients.

BS Duggal, Additional Director, Agriculture Department, said this year the department promoted the sowing of summer moong, and this crop was sown on 35,000 hectares in Kurukshetra, Karnal, Palwal, Kaithal, Fatehabad and Sirsa. Since summer moong fixes nitrogen in the soil, it helps in increasing the soil fertility and preparing the soil for the next paddy crop.

“We are expecting that the total production of summer moong will be around 25,000 tonnes. As against an MSP of Rs 3,500 per quintal for moong, the prevailing market price is between Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 per quintal for this pulse. Farmers are sure to get a good renumeration, and the state government has already asked HAFED and NAFED to intervene in the market in case the price of this crop falls.

Chandigarh, July 4
Haryana has been selected for the “Best Performing State Award” for wheat for 2010-11. The award will be presented by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the occasion of ICAR Foundation Day on July 16 in New Delhi.

While stating this today, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister, said the award carried Rs 1 crore in cash, which would be utilised for strengthening of infrastructure in the state. “It is for the first time that the state has bagged such an award,” he added.

Agriculture being priority sector, the state government has launched various initiatives to improve production and productivity of wheat crop. Timely sowing, seed treatment, increased seed replacement rate with focus on location-specific varieties, balanced use of fertilisers, efficient use of water, weed management and effective management of pests are pursued as a campaign to improve the productivity of wheat crop. 

Kaithal, July 4
A 17-year-old newlywed, who refused to live with her 50-year-old husband, was allegedly strangled to death by her father and other family members at Kasan village yesterday. However, before the body could be cremated, the police took it in its possession.

Simarjit Singh, SP, said a case of murder had been registered against the victim’s father, Naresh Kumar, and uncles Inder Singh and Basau Ram.

According to reports, the girl, Mukesh, was married as per the “atta satta” custom. The custom involves an arrangement between two families in which a girl is married off to a man of the other family provided the other family agrees to marry off one of their girls to a boy of the first family. The families of Inder, a resident of Kasan, and Jay Veer of Koth village in Hisar district, decided to marry girls of each other’s families. Under the arrangement, Mukesh was married to Jay Veer (50) and Ritika of Jay Veer’s family to Inder, an uncle of Mukesh.

However, Mukesh, who returned to her parental house, refused to go back to her husband’s house. A panchayat was held on July 2 to persuade Mukesh to go to her in-laws’ house but she refused. Her reluctance infuriated her father and other family members, who allegedly killed her. 

Jind, July 4
The district police claims to have busted an inter-state gang of ATM card fraudsters by arresting three of its members allegedly involved in several cases of cheating of consumers using the ATM facility in various districts of Haryana and Delhi.

The accused were produced in a local court, which remanded them in three-day police custody. Over a dozen cases of ATM fraud were reported from different places in the district in the past one year.

According to the police, the accused are Sonu of Julana, Rajender of Dharamkheri village and Surender of Meham town in Rohtak district. The suspects were seen moving under suspicious circumstances near the ATM cabin of the State Bank of India branch at Julana town, about 25 km from here.

The youths were intercepted by a police team and during interrogation it was revealed that they were part of a gang which was active in the region and had been involved in several incidents of ATM frauds. The police claimed that the accused had confessed to their involvement in some of the cases that were reported in the recent past. It claimed that their modus operandi matched the details given by complainants who had been cheated while making transactions using the ATM card.

Jind, July 4
Traffic on the main road connecting Jind with Safidon was disrupted for about two-and-a-half hours this morning when members of the Dalit community blocked the road near Jamni village.

The blockade was organised in protest against the ‘failure’ of the district police to arrest those involved in the alleged murder of a 23-year-old Dalit youth at Amrawali village in the district on June 25 last.

The protesters lifted the blockade after the intervention of senior officials. However, they threatened to start an indefinite fast at the mini-secretariat on July 7 if no action was taken by then.

Kin of the victim and residents of Amrawali and nearby villages, who attended a condolence meeting today, reached the bus stand at Jamni village and blocked the main road in protest against the failure of the police to arrest the accused named in the FIR.

It is alleged that Pradip Kumar, working as a farm worker in Amrawali, was allegedly beaten to death by members of the family he was working for nine days ago. Though the police had booked four persons, including two women, in the case, they had not yet been arrested, said a victim’s kin.

Demanding the arrest of all accused, the protesters asked the government to provide financial aid to the victim’s family, besides a job. 

Sonepat, July 4
Babita and her husband, Raj Singh, of Barona village, died on the spot after they were trapped under a Delhi-bound passenger train at a level crossing near the railway station this morning.

They reportedly got trapped while saving Babita's mother, Chameli Devi. The GRP took the bodies for a postmortem. The GRP also found Chameli Devi lying unconscious at the crossing. A case has been registered. — OC