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Pollution control board
lets off big builders
Post-Ratia, INLD to recast Haryana unit
Sites inspected in Hisar, Bhiwani for N-plant
Banks, banquet halls asked to tighten security
Move to check GPA use for illegal colonisation |
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Kuwait keen to invest in Haryana
Woman, two kids attempt suicide at Rohtak police station
Alka and her two sons (inset) under treatment at the PGIMS, Rohtak, on Thursday morning. Photo: Manoj Dhaka
Youth booked for ATM fraud
NIT signs pact with Czech varsity
Banquet hall owner booked for playing music after 10 pm
Effective functioning of PRIs
Boy’s murder
Woman consumes poison in police station
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Pollution control board
lets off big builders
Chandigarh, December 8 Sources said the board and its officials, without any authority vested in them, not only withdrew the ongoing court cases against big builders for environmental violations but also adopted the option of plea bargaining to decide them. While a few hundred such pending cases were withdrawn, the board, by circulation, got approved a proposal from the Board of Directors headed by the Chairman of the board, Dr AS Chahal, to adopt the plea bargaining process and clubbed the ongoing cases of each builder to decide them. This proposal was approved for cases of past violations where the violators had subsequently obtained environmental clearance. Sources said the “beneficiaries” were essentially big builders against whom the prosecution proceedings had been initiated for starting their projects without prior mandatory environmental clearances. Any violations of the Environment Protection Act, 1986, (EPA) are punishable with imprisonment up to five years or fine of Rs 1 lakh or both under Section 15 of the provisions. However, under the plea-bargaining system, the accused can confess his guilt and be let off the hook with lighter punishment under the law. The board decided that a maximum fine of Rs 1 lakh would be levied where project investment was more than Rs 1 crore and Rs 10,000 where the project investment was less than Rs 1 crore. Sources in the Environment Department said that while there was no provision under the Environmental Protection Act to adopt the process of plea bargaining, the Legal Remembrancer (LR), in his opinion sought by the department, has clearly stated that “no power vests with the board or its officials to entertain any application for plea bargaining”. His opinion also mentioned that once any defaulter under the EPA had been given relief under a provision of the CrPC for committing an offence punishable under Section 15 of the EPA, the same relief cannot be provided to him for a similar offence. This implies that the board went ahead and decided 40-odd cases without any authority to do so and even may have provided relief to “chronic” offenders. The matter came to light after a complaint was received by the office of the Forest Minister, Capt Ajay Yadav, from a Gurgaon resident. The complainant alleged that the board withdrew cases against builders for EPA violations on the basis of plea bargaining even though no such provisions existed in the Act. Subsequently, the minister ordered an inquiry which was conducted by the Director, Environment, who suggested that the legality of plea bargaining be clarified with the LR who opined that the board did not have any such power. The matter of “illegal” plea bargaining was brought to the notice of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who has ordered that “suitable remedial action” be taken in this regard. Environmental violations
* Under the plea-bargaining system, the accused can confess his guilt and get away with lighter punishment under the law *
The board decided that a maximum fine of Rs 1 lakh would be levied where project investment was more than Rs 1 crore and Rs 10,000 where the project investment was less than Rs 1 crore. |
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Post-Ratia, INLD to recast Haryana unit
Chandigarh, December 8 The meeting was convened to discuss the results of the Ratia and Adampur Assembly byelections. While the party lost the Ratia seat to the Congress, which won it after 29 years, in Adampur the INLD nominee finished third behind the HJC and the Congress candidates. Chautala blamed the “misuse of official machinery” and the “immoral tactics” adopted by the ruling party for the INLD defeat in the two constituencies. Urging the workers not to be disheartened by the Ratia result, Chautala said in the past the INLD had been able to overcome the worst situations and emerge stronger. The workers were asked to send suggestions on the reorganisation of the party structure before December 31. The meeting authorised Haryana INLD president Ashok Arora and secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala to reorganise the party unit in the state.
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Sites inspected in Hisar, Bhiwani for N-plant
Hisar, December 8 The team also visited Kitlana village in Bhiwani district today for the same purpose. The proposed plant will be set up at one of these sites. KB Dikshit, Executive Director of the corporation, had conferred with senior government officers in April last about the location of the plant. The authorities had suggested these two sites. Later, the project manager of the proposed nuclear power plant at Gorakhpur, near Fatehabad, sent the corporation his survey report about the two sites in June. The team led by additional chief engineer MC Burman of the corporation made enquiries regarding the quality of soil and availability of water and rail transport in the area around the plant. He said the site near Balsamand village was suitable as it was mandatory that the five kilometre area around the plant should not be populated.
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Banks, banquet halls asked to tighten security
Panipat, December 8 District police chief Pankaj Nain held a meeting with the representatives of banks and other establishments and told them to ensure that CCTV cameras, with ample storage facilities to maintain recordings of at least 30 days, were put up on their premises. He said that the cameras should have 360-degree rotation. The SP said that the banks should appoint gunmen who were only assigned the job of manning the premises instead of undertaking menial jobs, as happens in most banks. He also told the bankers to seek police protection when transporting extra cash. He asked the representatives to make certain that the parking lots were also put under CCTV surveillance. In case there was an incident of firing during a wedding, the owners of the marriage palace should immediately bring it to the notice of the police. |
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Move to check GPA use for illegal colonisation
Gurgaon, December 8 The move is to ensure that GPA is not being used for illegal colonisation. The DC’s communiqué maintains that GPA outside blood relations has been banned in Gurgaon and other parts of Haryana. “Some people use GPAs issued from other states to get sale deeds of plots registered here. This gives rise to illegal colonisation in the district which defeats the purpose of planned urbanisation,” Meena said, adding that if GPAs were sent to the local authorities, it could be ascertained that these are not being used for illegal colonisation before registering sale deeds. “If it is found during the scrutiny of GPAs that these had been used for illegal colonisation, police cases can be registered against the seller and the property dealer,” he asserted. The Deputy Commissioner has also written to the HUDA and MCG authorities to install notice boards on land in disputed or under litigation in their jurisdiction so that prospective buyers come to know that the land where plots were being offered to them was in dispute, thus saving them from being defrauded. In order to make property buyers aware, the district administration would distribute pamphlets highlighting the drawbacks of buying plots in unauthorised colonies.
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Kuwait keen to invest in Haryana
Chandigarh, December 8 Hooda informed the Ambassador about the planned petrochemical complex in Panipat and invited Kuwaiti companies to set up downstream projects. The Ambassador spoke high of the contribution of Indians in Kuwait. Hooda appreciated the importance of Kuwait for India’s petroleum requirements and highlighted the fact that Kuwait was one of India’s biggest petro sources. India imports crude worth $11 billion from Kuwait every year. The Ambassador said Kuwait was in the process of investing more that $ 3 billion in India. The focus areas for Kuwaiti investment were petrochemicals, fertilisers, healthcare and education.
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Woman, two kids attempt suicide at Rohtak police station
Rohtak, December 8 The police had brought Ashish Kumar Jain to the Civil Lines police station for interrogation in a case of fraud. The accused’s wife and two children landed inside the police station soon after and fainted after crying for help. The woman was identified as Alka (33). Her two sons were aged eight and 12 years. The police took them to the PGIMS, where their condition was stated to be out of danger. It is learnt that Alka and her children started following the police vehicle from Rajgarh town in Rajasthan, from where the police picked up Alka’s husband in connection with the case on Wednesday and decided to bring him here. The suspect had gone missing after a case was booked on the complaint of a local resident, who had alleged that Ashish had cheated him of Rs 11.5 lakh in a business deal related to the sale of computers. Ashish reportedly hails from Jind town and was running his own business. He was arrested at Rajgarh on a tip-off, said a police official. Alka was learnt to be upset with her husband’s arrest and decided to follow the police vehicle while claiming that he was innocent and demanding his release. It is not clear if the woman and her children took poison inside the police station or just a few minutes before entering the police station. The authorities have placed the Investigating Officer of the case under suspension for irregularities in handling the case. As the woman and her sons were still in the PGIMS, the police has booked a case under Sections 307 and 328 of the IPC against the couple and another case under Section 309 of the IPC against the woman.
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Youth booked for ATM fraud
Hisar, December 8 A sum of Rs 78,000, which he had allegedly withdrawn from the accounts of his victims, has been recovered from him. As many as 11 ATM cards were also recovered from him. He was produced in a court today and remanded in judicial custody. According to the police, there had been a sudden spurt in cases of fraudulent withdrawals from ATMs in the area over the past few weeks. On a tip off, the police raided his house in Kanoh and arrested him. The youth was till recently a petty thief, who used to pick pockets on long-distance trains. As a pickpocket, he was able to lay hands on several ATM cards. He then started loitering around ATMs and picked his victims carefully. They included women and people unfamiliar with ATM operations. His modus operandi was to tinker with ATMs, because of which the victims were unable to withdraw money. He then offered to help and switched cards with them. After the victims departed, he would withdraw their money. A day earlier, he had withdrawn Rs 16,000 from the account of a police constable posted here. |
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NIT signs pact with Czech varsity
Kurukshetra, December 8 The MoU was signed by Prof A. K. Gupta, dean (academics) on behalf of the NIT. Two delegates of Brno University, Prof Martin Hartl, director of the Institute of Machine and Industrial Design, and Prof Ivan Krupka, head of the Tribology Research Group, visited the NIT for this international collaboration in mechanical engineering. Earlier, Dr Punit Kumar, assistant professor, Mechanical Engineering Department, NIT, had visited the Czech university for two weeks in June, 2011, as a part of a project sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The Czech delegates had expressed a desire to sign the MoU at a formal meeting with Prof V. K. Arora, acting director, and Prof SK Saxena, head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, NIT, last evening. |
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Banquet hall owner booked for playing music after 10 pm
Rohtak, December 8 According to a police spokesperson, the case against the accused, Ajay Kumar, was booked after complaints by residents of the neighborhood where the banquet hall is located, near the local canal rest house. He said though complaints had been received by the police in the past also, the accused failed to abide by the directions of the department, which led to a raid on the night of December 4, when the banquet hall was found to be playing blaring music beyond the stipulated time. A case has been booked against the owner of the marriage place but no arrest has been made so far. The police had failed to take action against dozens of such banquet halls that had been violating the rules, claimed Virender Singh, a local resident. The police, however, said action could only be taken after the lodging of a complaint.
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Women panches must come out of shell: DC
Tribune New Service
Karnal, December 8 The 33 per cent reservation for women in the PRIs has deprived the male members from contesting elections from their traditional strongholds. Though, in most cases, women members of the family have replaced the men, the real functional power still vests in the males. The women folk are yet to come out of their shell to challenge the male domination and, in a large number of cases, the husbands, fathers or brothers of the elected women usurp their powers and functions, making the female PRI members ineffective. Even 25 years after the 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments, not much has changed at the grassroots and only a few women members are asserting themselves and influencing decision making. The concern about the passive role played by women PRI members was evident at the inauguration of the training camp organised by the Panchayati Raj and Community Development Institute (Nelokheri), where deputy commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni gave a clarion call to women members to “build confidence that they have the potential and capabilities to perform like men and there is no work which the men can do and they can not.” “The women should shun the dependence on men, learn to function without their assistance or guidance and prove their own mettle,” she said, adding that women panches should sit with the officers concerned and fellow representatives to take appropriate decisions instead of becoming totally subservient to the males. Women members should get various rural development programmes, like MNREGA, implemented properly and ensure that the funds are utilised in a transparent manner. She urged the PRI members to inspect the anganwaris, ensure proper sanitation, remove encroachments on government land, motivate people to send their children to schools ,actively participate in the literacy mission and inform the people about the benefits of various developmental and welfare schemes.
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Mother turns out to be killer
Ravinder Saini
Jhajjar, December 8 During a police interrogation, Meena confessed to having committed the crime to teach a lesson to her husband, SP Patram Singh said here today. “We have arrested Meena on the charge of killing her minor son and also recovered a duppatta which was used to strangulate the child,” said the SP, claiming that this was a blind murder case. Harsh was found murdered on the rooftop of his house at Aashauda Todran in Bahadurgarh town on Sunday evening and the police had registered a case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC against unidentified killers on the complaint of Meena. “Her husband Parminder used to torture her daily under the influence of liquor. Infuriated at this, Meena decided to end her life and before that she strangulated her son. Then she left her home in panic, but on returning and realising what she had done, she made up the story that someone had murdered her son,” said Patram Singh. Later, she confessed the crime in front of former sarpanch Mahendra Singh, who informed the police. She was today produced before a local court, which sent her in judicial custody.
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Woman consumes poison in police station
Jhajjar, December 8 The incident took place this afternoon when Dhanpati came to the police station to know the fate of her complaint against Mukesh. She reportedly consumed some poisonous substance near a Peer Majaar on the police station campus. Policemen rushed her to the local civil hospital which referred her to the PGIMS, Rohtak. Jhajjar SP Patram Singh said Dhanpati had lodged a complaint against Mukesh on Wednesday that he used to torture her for dowry.
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In a shocking incident, a woman along with her two minor children attempted suicide inside the Civil Lines police station here last midnight. All three have been admitted to the PGIMS here. The police has registered a case under various sections against the woman and her husband. The latter had been arrested by the police in connection with a case of fraud booked against him a fortnight ago.
