Fatehabad, July 25
The mahapanchayat organised by the agitating farmers of Gorakhpur village against the acquisition of their lands for the proposed nuclear power plant failed to evoke much response as very few farmers turned up for the show.

Local leaders of the opposition parties outnumbered Gorakhpur farmers in a show where little over a hundred people gathered outside the mini secretariat to demand annulment of Section 4 of the Land Acquisition Act issued by the government last year.

The farmers later submitted a memorandum addressed to UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in this regard to the DC, Ashok Meena.

In their memorandum, the farmers maintained that “bread and butter” of over 10,000 people was directly attached to the 1,313 acres of agriculture land being acquired by the government.

The farmers maintained that panchayats of 31 villages in the vicinity of Gorakhpur had passed a resolution against the nuclear power plant, due to the perils associated with it.

The agitating farmers maintained that their land was highly fertile and was not fit for acquisition as per the government’s own policy.

The farmers announced that they would not allow the authorities to take possession of their agriculture lands, even if a notification under Section 6 was issued.

The farmers also announced that they would hold demonstrations against the state government during the forthcoming Hisar byelection.

Sirsa, July 25
Rotten wheat has been supplied to the poor under the public distribution system (PDS) in the district.

Wheat, apparently blackened because of remaining under floodwaters, was not only supplied to several ration depots in the district by Confed, but has also been sent outside the state under the PDS in a special train recently. The matter came to light when Makhan Singh, sarpanch of Kheowali village, stopped distribution in his village after noticing that mouldy wheat mixed with this season’s fresh wheat was being supplied to the villagers.

Upon inquiries from neighbouring villages, the sarpanch and Prem Kumar, who runs the PDS depot at Kheowali under the name of his kin Sunita, found that similar rotten wheat had been supplied to the PDS depots at Bansudhar, Sahuwala, Chamel, Dhani Charso and some other villages too.

Makhan Singh showed this wheat to mediapersons during the press conference of Leader of Opposition Om Parkash Chautala in Sirsa today.

“I received 118 bags of wheat from Confed this month and out of those 25 bags contained fresh wheat mixed with the rotten one,” said Prem Kumar.

The Deputy Commissioner, Yudhbir Singh Khyalia, constituted a committee of the District Food and Supplies Controller, the District Manager of Confed and the head analyst of the Food and Supplies Department to raid ration depots in the district and seize the rotten wheat, if any, stocked there.

Khyalia has also sought a report on how the rotten wheat found its way to the PDS chain in the district.

Padam Jain, district president of the INLD, alleged that the Confed authorities had been cajoling the depot holders to replace their rotten wheat after the “exposure” by his party.

Admitting that some putrid wheat had found its way to the PDS chain, NR Saini, District Manager of Confed, said he had gone to villages to find out the exact quantity of the rotten wheat supplied to the ration depots.

He also admitted that 5,000 bags of this lot had been loaded in a special train for distribution to other states under the PDS chain.

Jain alleged that the Haryana Warehousing Corporation’s wheat, which remained submerged under floodwaters for over a month at Bani, had been purchased by some unscrupulous elements in Confed in collusion with some traders and then mixed with fresh grain to supply them to the poor through the PDS chain.

Out of the 1,70,000 bags of wheat that had submerged under floodwaters at Bani last year, the corporation found 95,340 bags (4767MT) of ‘dumping’ category, and sold itfor less than a rupee per kilo.

As many as 2,280 bags were found of ‘feed one’ quality for which the highest bid received by the authorities was Rs 940 per quintal. And, 4920 bags were found with more than 60 per cent damage to the grains and these, classified as ‘manure’ quality, attracted the maximum bid of Rs 216 per quintal during auction. 

Chandigarh, July 25
Haryana is all set to reduce poverty in its state by rolling out the ambitious National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) by enabling the poor households to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. Under the state society set up in Haryana, called the the Haryana State Rural Livelihoods Mission, the Department of Development and Panchayats has initiated the process of identifying villages to be covered under the programme, which will replace the existing Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY).

Maintaining that the NRLM is an improvement over the SGSY, P Raghevdra Rao, Principal Secretary, Development and Panchayats, says that the programme has moved from being allocation-based to being demand-driven while strengthening the self-help groups existing under the SGSY by consolidating them into federations.

Against providing no subsidy on interest rate under the SGSY, the NRLM will offer subsidy above seven per cent rate of interest while promoting training, capacity building and skill enhancement. The federations will also be given a one-time grant, which will range from Rs 10,000 at the gram panchayat level to Rs 1 lakh at the district level.

“We were supposed to identify 10 per cent of the blocks in our state from where the project will take off. In Haryana, we will begin from the 12 poorest blocks in one district of every division. For the purpose, we have identified Kaithal in Ambala division, Bhiwani in Hisar, Mewat in Gurgaon and Jhajjar in Rohtak divisions for the initial phase. The choice of three blocks in each of the selected districts has been based on the percentage of its scheduled caste population and the rural and the Below Poverty Line population in the blocks,” Rao adds.

The first meeting of the newly constituted society was held last month to appoint the Chief Executive Officer to facilitate the implementation of the programme. The process of setting up the Mission Management Units (MMUs) at the state level right down to the block level is underway as is the process of appointing consultants who can work on establishing linkages between the federations and the industry while imparting skills, which can become money-spinners for the poor.

“The programme entails roping in of professional bodies with expertise in livelihood generation and linkages in trade. The BPL families of a village will be organised into a self-help group, which will ultimately be a part of a federation. These federations will be imparted training in various skills for employment. The consultants appointed by the government will help out with productivity enhancement, marketing linkages and risk management,” OP Sheoran, director, Rural Development, said.

The state is also not averse to the idea of studying the Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh model, which has successfully implemented the scheme on its own. 

Sirsa, July 25
Former Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala today denied any knowledge of Punjab Irrigation Minister Janmeja Singh Sekhon’s alleged threat to a Haryana officer, allegedly at his behest.

Chautala, who addressed a press conference at his Sirsa residence today, was asked to comment on the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee president Phool Chand Mullana’s statement questioning his (Chautala’s) silence over the issue.

Mullana’s statement was published in today’s newspapers, through which the HPCC president had alleged: “The objectionable conduct of the Akali minister threatening a Haryana officer with criminal case on Hansi-Butana Canal “toe-wall” issue and unusual silence of the Chautala family over the issue has exposed deep collusion between Chautala and Badal family.”

Responding to Mullana’s allegations, Chautala said that he was unaware of the incident, and at the same time, he was not responsible for what one person said to another.

Chautala held a section of bureaucracy responsible for the unsavoury incident and alleged that officers had become unbridled under the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime in Haryana.

The INLD supremo maintained that the bureaucracy, being servants of people, should show respect to people, whether from Haryana or from any other state of the country.

However, the bureaucrats, he alleged, had become headstrong due to lack of control of the Chief Minister, leading to rampant corruption and deterioration of law and order.

Answering a question, Chuatala said the forthcoming byelection for the Hisar parliamentary constituency would prove to be a trailer for the next assembly election; he claimed that his party would win the bypoll by a handsome margin.

He said that he had called a meeting of his party’s office-bearers at Kurukshetra on July 31 to chalk out a strategy for the bypoll and the party would start its campaigning in the right earnest, though the INLD expected the poll by the end of September this year.

Chandigarh, July 25
A would-be mother, who is contesting a court case against her father, would soon undergo tests at a civil hospital to prove she is a major and well within her rights to raise a family.

Appearing before the Punjab and Haryana High Court today, she along with her “husband” Ehsan, agreed to go in for an ossification test.

When the girl was tested positive for pregnancy 14 weeks ago, little did she realise that soon she would be contesting a legal battle to prove that she was not a minor in order to demonstrate the legitimacy of her pregnancy.

Her father is claiming she was 13 years old when “abducted”. Her “husband”, on the other hand, is insisting she is 18 years old and.

As the Habeas Corpus petition filed by Bhavesh Chander Pandit of Jharkhand came up for hearing before Justice TPS Mann, Pandit said the girl was born on December 25, 1998. Contesting the claim, Ehsan said the girl in question was born on March 2, 1993. He further stated that they had tied the knot on March 22 this year.

Taking cognisance of the situation, Justice Mann asserted: “It would be appropriate to determine the exact date of birth of the girl”.

During the course of hearing, the couple made it clear that they had no objections to undergo the ossification test used to determine whether a person is a minor or major.

In his detailed order, Justice Mann added on the basis of the assertion: “Let the girl, along with Ehsan, appear before the SHO of Police Station Sadar, Yamunanagar, for the purpose of the ossification test.”

Chandigarh, July 25
Haryana Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dharambir Singh said the Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras would be set up in all those villages of the state, the gram panchayats of which have got development works of up to Rs 20 lakh done under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

He said the purpose of setting up the kendras was to acquaint the people with this ambitious scheme.

Dharambir, who was speaking at the district-level sammelan of representatives of the panchayati raj institutions at Uchana in Jind district, said the scheme had proved a boon for all sections of the society, including farmers and labourers. He said, “The state government has brought all those farmers under the ambit of the scheme who have less than five acres of land. Such farmers can get saplings planted on their land and also get the land leveled under the scheme. In case the farmer himself has been working in his fields, he was getting wages for 100 days.” 

Ambala, July 25
Hara Nand, IG (Railway Protection Force), today inspected security measures at the Ambala Cantt railway station in the view of several threats received a few months back to blast railway stations in the division, including Ambala.

He expressed concern over all metal detectors, which were lying out of order at the railway station. He said as a result of the government purchase policy to procure goods from lowest bidders, sometimes the department had to suffer like metal detectors purchased for Ambala Cantt railway station. In case of making purchases on higher rates, the department had to face several queries from the Audit Department, he added.

Hara Nand said the defective metal detectors would be repaired or replaced as early as possible. He further said, “The RPF is committed to uphold the rule of law, to prevent crime and to maintain law and order. We are here to protect the weak, the under-privileged and to check corruption.

“To provide security to passengers travelling in the trains is our moral duty. The Ambala Division of the Northern Railways is one of the most important divisions. It is extremely important because of it being a gateway to the region of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan,” said the IG. 

Karnal, July 25
Sleuths of the state Crime Bureau today again grilled former Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS) Zile Ram Sharma in the former sarpanch Karam Singh’s death case.

Zile Ram was supplied a 60-point questionnaire and questioned about his whereabouts on the day Karam Singh died under suspicious circumstances. He was also interrogated regarding the allegations of graft levelled against him by the deceased, highly placed sources said.

He also submitted his bank statements to the crime bureau and the same are being looked into by the agency. ADGP Sharad Kumar confirmed that Zile Ram was questioned, but refused to divulge details of the interrogation.

The investigating agency had questioned Zile Ram at Madhuban last Saturday also and today again he was confronted with a volley of questions at Panchkula. Zile Ram and former Transport Minister Om Prakash Jain were named as main accused in the complaint filed by Rajinder singh, son of the deceased, and both were made to resign from their ministerial posts by the Chief Minister.

Later, the Crime Bureau also booked them under Sections 7, 13 (1) d and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and the staff members were also interrogated.

The family members of Karam Singh had alleged that he was murdered as he had demanded his money back from Jain and Zile Ram that he had allegedly paid to them for recruiting his three relatives in government jobs.

The body of Karam Singh had pricks marks, but the postmortem report said these were superficial and did not cause death, but the case took a turn when the final report of experts at the AIIMS, New Delhi, said it was a suicide case.

However, the crime branch stated that the reports would be re-examined to ascertain the effect of pricking, if it was superficial.

Karam singh was found in a semi-conscious condition near the NDRI, Karnal, on June 7 and later died in a hospital. He had written to the Chief Minister and the district authorities alleging that he had paid Rs 12.95 lakh to Jain and Zile Ram for recruiting his three relatives in government jobs. The deceased had alleged that he had paid Rs 4.95 lakh to the CPS for recruiting one of his relative for the post of constable and Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4.50 lakh to Jain for the jobs of conductor and clerk, respectively.