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Villagers divided over giving land to Rajiv Gandhi Trust for eye hospital
BJP flays Congress over land acquisition
Opposition maligning Cong: HPCC
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I’m concerned only with green issues: Menon
12 out of 70 pleas to be placed before HC
4 gunned down in Jhajjar village
Course on prevention of human trafficking for policemen
SC families demand allotment of plots
Villagers block road over erratic power supply
SI, 4 women booked on blackmail charges
2 cable operators gunned down in Bahadurgarh
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Villagers divided over giving land to Rajiv Gandhi Trust for eye hospital
Gurgaon, August 3 The panchayat decided to pursue the matter in the court and file fresh cases against the district and state authorities, under whose alleged pressure the said land deal was signed. The panchayat also constituted a nine-member committee for the purpose. On the other hand, another faction of village residents, led by former sarpanch Surender Prakash, during whose tenure the said chunk of panchayat land had been leased to the trust, asserted that the decision had been taken in the larger interest for establishing an eye hospital. They said no irregularity had been committed in the deal, which had been executed in accordance with the law. “The terms and conditions clearly stated that the said chunk of land could not be used for any other purpose and the lease would not be extended beyond 33 years,” they maintained. The lease amount had been fixed at Rs 3 lakh per acre per year, they said and added that the village panchayat had already accepted two installments of Rs 15 lakh each. His views were endorsed by village nambardar Pritam Singh, former sarpanch Narayan Singh, former panch Jaivir and other village residents. However, sarpanch Dharambir and several other villagers alleged that the said deal had been signed under pressure from the state authorities and district administration, and they would move the court against that as well. They categorically stated that a former Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon had pressurised the villagers to sign the deal on the instance of the state Chief Minister. Meanwhile, addressing a press conference here today, the Haryana BJP president, KP Gurjar, said in light of the matter, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had no moral authority to continue in office. “The BJP demands that he (Hooda) should resign immediately. The party also demands an inquiry into the entire episode by a retired Judge of the high court or the Supreme Court,” he stated. Gurjar said the BJP would launch a mass agitation over the matter from tomorrow at all district headquarters. |
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BJP flays Congress over land acquisition New Delhi, August 3 Heartened by the developments, the BSP also tried to settle scores with the Congress for the trouble it had created for the Mayawati government in Bhatta-Parsaul. Putting the Congress in the dock for allotment of land to the Trust by the party’s government in Haryana, the BSP claimed that the land was acquired from farmers and given to the Trust while the matter was sub judice. The Congress in turn trashed all accusations with party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi giving a detailed point by point rebuttal to all allegations. He said no rules were bent and that land was only given on lease. “Not a single rule has been bent, the gram panchayat owns the land,” he said, slamming the Opposition for distorting facts for “irrelevant” political gains. “The BJP allegations are a case of complete lack of awareness of facts,” he said. Strengthened by BS Yeddyurappa’s resignation as Karnataka Chief Minister following graft charges, the BJP is now demanding the resignation of Hooda for the “illegal” denotification and the lease of land in Gurgaon to the Trust, of which Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and daughter Priyanka are the trustees. “If Yeddyurappa had to resign due to denotification of a land, the Hooda government should also resign for denotifying this property,” BJP chief Nitin Gadkari maintained. The Opposition sees it as an opportunity to embarrass the Congress after the party’s successful run in the agitation against land acquisition in the BSP-ruled Uttar Pradesh. The Congress led by party scion Rahul Gandhi had supported farmers against the BSP’s “poor” land acquisition policy in a widely publicised agitation. Gadkari accused the family for taking more than five acres of panchayat land in Haryana’s Ullahawas village on lease for a rent of Rs 3 lakh per annumm, claiming that all laws had been set aside by the Hooda government to give this land worth Rs 50 crore on lease to the Gandhis. He said the BJP would appeal to the Punjab and Haryana High Court that all aspects of this deal should be investigated by a Special Investigation Team. He also demanded that a retired judge should conduct a probe into all land acquired by the Hooda government during its tenure.
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Opposition maligning Cong: HPCC
Rohtak, August 3 Spokesperson for the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) Ved Prakash Vidrohi and the chairperson of the Rasthriya Mahila Mandal and the Bal Vikas Samiti, Sumitra Dahiya, have claimed that a section of electronic media had been engaged in maligning the Congress in this matter on the behest of the Opposition parties, including the INLD, the BJP — and the RSS. In different statements issued here today, these leaders claimed that the land was given by the Ullawas village panchayat to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation for setting up the eye hospital on an annual lease basis and no transfer was done by the state government, as alleged. They said the ownership of this land still lay with the village panchayat and it was not for sale or transfer, as claimed in the news reports. They said while a section of media had been unnecessarily sensationalising the matter, the Haryana Government had issued a section 4 notification for acquiring 1,471 acres for the development of sectors 58 to 67. After hearing the objections, the government released 613 acres, including the five acres leased to the foundation. Claiming that that there was no legal case in the high court regarding the land leased to the foundation, it was alleged that a section of the media had been misrepresenting the facts to increase its TRP. Dahiya described the demand of the resignation of the CM by the INLD on this matter as a desperation to gain power in the state by any means. The construction of a charitable eye hospital would only benefit the common man where the cost of treatment would be nominal and the plot was not leased for any commercial activity, she added. Local MLA BB Batra has also claimed that it was part of a campaign by certain elements who were upset by the land acquisition policy and performance of the government. |
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I’m concerned only with green issues: Menon
Chandigarh, August 3 About 70 petitions were filed challenging the land acquisition. Only one of them mentioned the land released for the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. Even that petitioner had not challenged the release of land for the trust. He only wanted that his land should also be treated on a par with the trust land. Among the petitioners was an internationally renowned artist-cum-Padmashree awardee Anjolie Ela Menon, whose land measuring over 19 kanal in Ghatta is also under acquisition. When the government offered that the petitioners could represent to the high-power committee set up by it to examine all cases of land release, over 55 petitioners agreed to withdraw their petitions and appear before the committee. However, Menon, along with a few others, want the court to adjudicate on their petitions. But Menon today distanced herself from the ongoing controversy regarding the trust land, saying her concerns were limited to environmental issues in the Aravalli area. |
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12 out of 70 pleas to be placed before HC
Chandigarh, August 3 As the case came up for hearing this morning, two more petitions challenging the acquisition of land in Gurgaon for the development of Sectors 58 to 65 were withdrawn, taking the total number of withdrawals to 58. The petitions have been withdrawn after Haryana came out with an offer, asking the landowners to apply for the release of their land being acquired. The proceedings saw a visibly displeased Bench express anguish over lawyers addressing the media on sub-judice matters. Not going into specifics, the Bench asked Haryana Advocate-General Hawa Singh Hooda to explain why the lawyers were addressing press conferences, particularly when the state had IAS officers or secretaries. Hooda agreed that the lawyers should abide by the norms laid down by the Bar Council of India. The Bench verbally also asked the media to refrain from reporting oral observations, since they were not always a part of the written judgment. Disposing of the “withdrawn” petitions this afternoon, the Bench asked them to appear before the high powered committee, looking into the issue, on September
6. |
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4 gunned down in Jhajjar village
Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar), August 3 The deceased have been identified as Sonu of Pelpa village and Sandeep, Godha and Satte, all belonging to Mandhothi village. Godha was the son of a former sarpanch of Mandhothi village. The police has registered a case of murder against eight unidentified persons in this regard and investigations are on. The killing is believed to be the outcome of an old enmity. According to reports, the four deceased were coming back to Bahadurgarh from Jhajjar in a Maruti car after deposing before a court in connection with a criminal case when the incident took place. They were near the bus stop of Dulhera village, when a black Santro car hit their vehicle from behind while a van stopped in front of their car. Nearly eight youths came down from both vehicles and started indiscriminate firing upon them from a close range. Sonu, Sandeep, Godha and Satte reportedly died on the spot, while the assailants fled the spot in the van after leaving their car on the Sudani road. A team of policemen, including Patram Singh, SP, Jhajjar, and DSP Rajeev Deswal rushed to the spot and sent the bodies to the civil hospital here for the post-mortem. “The reason behind the killing is yet to be ascertained as the investigation is still on. A hunt has
been launched to nab the killers,” said a police officer. He added that efforts were also being made to identify the assailants. As the news of the incident reached Mandothi village, tension gripped the village and residents
started gathering at the hospital. |
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Course on prevention of human trafficking for policemen
Madhuban (Karnal), August 3 The six-month course had been specially designed by the IGNOU keeping in mind their professional needs and would acquaint them with various aspects of human trafficking and ways to tackle the menace, Prof Pillai said in his inaugural address. He said keeping in view the corporation of the academy and usefulness of the course to the police, IGNOU had subsidised the fees by 50 per cent and was considering starting a few more courses. The course has been prepared in consultancy with the Ministry of Home and Haryana is the first state to start the course. Lauding the facilities and infrastructure at the police academy, Prof Pillai said IGNOU was keen to set up a centre at the Madhuban Police Academy for launching special courses on cyber crime, forensic science and forensic research. Relevant course would also be launched to impart practical training to the participants, he added. Sudhir Chaudhry, Director, Madhuban Police Academy, said human trafficking was emerging as the third biggest menace after drugs and arms trafficking in the world. He added that keeping in view the dimension of the problem, it was imperative that the investigating agencies should be fully equipped and trained to effectively curb human trafficking. |
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SC families demand allotment of plots
Kaithal, August 3 In the memorandum, it had been alleged that about three-fourth of families had not been allotted plots, while number of non-deserving families had been allotted 100-yard plots. They demanded thorough probe into the matter. The DC had assured them to take action on their demands. Later talking to mediapersons, the aggrieved persons said many of them were not getting benefits of the government schemes as their names were deleted from the BPL list during last survey, due to which they were not issued yellow ration cards. Whenever they go to any government department to seek benefit under government schemes for benefit of SC/BC families, they were turned away for not being in possession of yellow cards. Besides, some of the persons, who were men of means and were well-off, manipulated the inclusion of their names in the BPL list. The villagers expressed resentment over the prevailing situation and said if they did not get any relief from the district administration, they would call on Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and seek his intervention to get justice. |
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Villagers block road over erratic power supply
Karnal, August 3 The villagers rued that despite assurance of 14 hours of electricity supply from executive engineer Satpal Malik on Monday, there was still no supply in the village. Villagers said there was no electricity in the village and the situation was becoming worse. “Our children are falling ill, people are crying for water, mosquito attacks have become more dreadful and the authorities are unconcerned,” they rued. Meanwhile, commuters had a hard time as they remained stranded for several hours. |
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SI, 4 women booked on blackmail charges
Panipat, August 3 The matter came to light after the IG, Rohtak Range, V Kamaraj, asked DSP Virender Vij to look into a complaint by Pratap Sharma, a local industrialist, in which he had accused the in charge of the Sector 29 police post of extorting money from him. As per the complaint, the industrialist had alleged that on March 19 this year, one Sunita Sharma called him on his phone and said two women had got a case of sexual harassment registered against him. He said the women also told him that she could save him from any legal action if he paid her Rs 5 lakh. Pratap added that when he approached the in charge of the Sector 29 police post, he said a complaint had been received and suggested that an out-of-court settlement would be in his favour. Fearing social compulsion, Pratap asked one of his friends to get in touch with Sunita, who managed to strike a deal with her for Rs 1.5 lakh. He alleged that the money was paid to two women on the premises of the police post and when he asked for a copy of the settlement, the SI asked him to pay Rs 1.5 lakh for foregoing legal action against him. Sharma said in order to get the complete details of the case, he put up an RTI query seeking information about the case that was registered against him and the copy of the written settlement. In reply to the RTI, the department told him that no case was ever registered against him. Following this, he wrote to the IG, accusing the SI and the four women of conspiring against him to extort money. |
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2 cable operators gunned down in Bahadurgarh
Jhajjar, August 3 The deceased have been identified as Ravi and Rakesh of Kheri Jassaur village here. The police has registered a criminal case against four persons in this connection on the complaint of the kin of the deceased. Dispute over cable network operation in the village between two groups is stated to be the reason behind the killing. The incident took place when Ravi, Rakesh and Bhola were standing outside their shop near the bus stand in the village. Pradeep along with three others allegedly came to the place in a car and opened several rounds of fire upon them from a close range. Ravi and Rakesh reportedly succumbed to bullet injuries on the spot while Bhola got injured seriously. |
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Rohtak, August 3
Chandigarh, August 3
