Chandigarh, December 29
Continuing with its populist policies, the Hooda Government has given a last “golden chance” to the owners of unauthorised buidings along the national highways and scheduled roads in the state.

According to sources, the deadline for the regularisation of the buildings along the national highways and the scheduled roads has been extended by six months through an amendment to the Punjab Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas Restriction of Unregulated Development Act,1963. A draft notification to this effect was issued on December 23 and the scheme will formally begin one month after when the final notification would be issued, sources told The Tribune.

The relief would be provided to the structures existing on January 3, 2009. An earlier scheme to regularise these structures evoked poor response forcing the department to extend the deadline by six months on “public demand”.

The Act prohibits the construction of any building except the petrol stations and bus queue shelters in an area of 30 metres on both sides of the national highways and scheduled roads and 100 metres on both sides of the bypasses on these roads.

The illegal constructions in the “non-construction zone” along the national highways and the scheduled roads were rampant in several cities in the state situated on these roads. After the expiry of earlier deadlines, the authorities, including the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), the Town and Country Planning Department and the Public Works Department (Bridges and Roads) had started demolition drives in several cities.

In the backdrop of the resistance to the demolition drives by the owners of these structures, the state government gave them last chance to get their constructions regularised. However, constructions coming in the way of the road-widening works will not be regularised under any circumstances, the sources warned.

Meanwhile, a high-level committee, having District Town Planners concerned, will scrutinise the applications for regularisation of the structures. A compounding fee of Rs 600 and Rs 350 per square metres will be imposed for buildings along the national and scheduled highways, respectively.

Rohtak, December 29
Chill and shortage of rooms have made teachers of various government schools in the district to hold classes in the open. The lure of warm sunlight has, however, resulted in inconvenience to the students who have to sit on the ground, be it inside or outside the classes.

The Government Girls Senior Secondary School at Model Town here is one such school where lack of desks for the students is an old problem. “We have to sit on the ground to attend the class even during chilly weather,” said a student of Plus One.

A visit to the school revealed that while the students were sitting in the class awaiting their teacher, a group of teachers were, however, sitting in the open under the sun in the school named after a martyr.

Similarly a visit to the government high school in the camp revealed that the number of rooms available for the students were short of the demand, resulting in the authorities holding a double shift at present. But due to shortage of rooms, students here had no option other than to attend classes in the open. The old building of this school was dismantled recently whereas the new building is not ready, said a student.

The District Education Officer (DEO) Krishna Dalal said that there was no shortage of rooms in any of the schools at present, adding that the problem of short supply of desks had been a routine problem and it had been taken up at the directorate level. While claiming that no complaint about the shortage of classrooms and desks had come to her notice, she said students and teachers preferred to hold classes in the open mainly due to the chilly weather.

Gurgaon, December 29
In a glaring instance of high-handed attitude, the management of a high-end private school located in the district was found to have encroached upon a chunk of panchayat land.

The matter came to notice of the district authorities and a notice was sent to the school management to vacate the panchayat land. However, the management did not even bother to respond to the notice.

Following this, a squad of the district administration got the panchayat land freed from the illegal occupation of the school located in Sector 62 here today. The possession of the land was also handed over to the Ullawas village panchayat.

The management of Heritage Public School, located in Sector 62 adjoining Ullawas village, had allegedly encroached upon some land belonging to the village panchayat.

On being apprised of the matter, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena directed the Block Development and Panchayat Officer (BDPO) concerned to inquire into the matter and get the encroachment removed in case the allegation was found to be true.

Sohna BDPO Pradeep Ahlawat said a notice under Section 24 (1) of the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, was issued to the school management on December 7 in which it was asked to vacate the panchayat land within a week.

However, the school managers did not respond to the notice and the illegal encroachment continued. Consequently, a demolition squad of district administration led by the BDPO demolished the boundary wall of the school today. The encroachment done by the school was removed and the land was handed over to the Ullawas village panchayat.

Meena confirmed that the panchayat land illegally occupied by Heritage Public School had been restored to the Ullawas village panchayat.

“It is really unfortunate that even the educational institutions, whose prime duty is to inculcate good moral values among the children, are found indulging in such immoral activities,” he said.

The removal of the encroachment was part of a campaign launched by the district administration for the purpose. Illegal encroachments on government/public land are being removed under the special drive.

On getting information about any illegal encroachment on government/public land, it is verified and if found true, conveyed to a demolition squad which has standing orders to remove it.

In case of panchayat land, the onus of removing the encroachment is on the BDPOs, while in the notified areas, the District Town Planner (Enforcement) has been entrusted with the job. In the areas falling under the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) or Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the respective agency is responsible for the removal of encroachments.

Panipat, December 29
Even as it took Rahila Vakil four long years to find that her father was buried in grave number 38 at Mehrana village of the district, her wait to pay last tributes at his grave is far from being over.

Rahila Vakil and other members of her family, who had applied for a visa to visit the grave, were denied the same by the Indian High Commission in Pakistan on the ground that the family did not have adequate bank balance.

Rahila’s local counsel, Monim Malik, who had been instrumental in ascertaining that her father, Mohammad Vakil, had died in the Samjhauta blast and lay buried at the Mehrana village graveyard, said

Mohammad was the sole earning member of the family and with the meagre resources that the family had, it was not possible for the them to maintain a bank balance.

Malik said it was on humanitarian grounds that the family of Mohammad Vakil should have been allowed to visit his grave. He said the case pertaining to claim of compensation money that had been announced by the Railways for the kin of the Samjhauta blast victims was also pending in the Railway claims tribunal for which the presence of the family was a must.

Rahila and other members of the family, including her mother, Hashroon Bibi, minor brother Mohammad Rizwan and Mohammad Imran, all residents of Dingrawali village in Hafjabad district of Punjab province of the neighbouring country had applied for the visa on December 14, but were denied the same.

Malik said he had now sent representations to the Union Home Minister and the External Affairs Minister seeking their intervention in the matter so that the family could visit the grave of Mohammad Vakil to pay their last tributes.

Mohammad Vakil had come to India to meet his relatives in Bhasani village in Muzaffarnagar district in Uttar Pradesh on February 14, 2007. From there, he left for Pakistan on February 17, but reportedly went missing. Unmindful of the fact that her father could have been killed in the Samjhauta blasts on the intervening night of February 18 and 19, Rahila continued to believe that in all probability, he was arrested by the Indian security agencies and put behind bars.

Thereafter, she wrote letters to the authorities of more than 60 jails across the country seeking information about her father. In the meantime, Monim Malik secured information from the National Investigating Agency (NIA) about the identity of the Pakistanis, which revealed that the person laying the grave numbered 38 had been identified as Mohammad Valik and it had been proved beyond any doubt through DNA test.

Hisar, December 29
The district administration has planned two special campaigns to register new voters in the district.

Amit Aggarwal, District Election Officer, said it had been noticed that the number of youths falling in the age group of 18 to 20 years in the district was much more than the voters registered in this category. He said the first campaign would start on January 5 and end on January 15. The second campaign would be launched on February 1 and it would conclude on February 29.

During these campaigns the officers would be required to visit educational institutions in their area and motivate youths to register as voters. They would explain the voter registration process to students. The relevant forms should be provided to heads of educational institutions, he added.

Aggarwal said special camps should be organised in these institutions during February to boost the number of young voters to enable them to participate in the democratic process.

Ambala , December 29
A labourer, Bhagat Ram (38), of Shahzadpur Majra village in Ambala, reportedly died following a severe beating by his employer and some of his associates.

When the condition of Bhagat Ram deteriorated last night when he returned home, he started vomiting and was rushed to the Shahzadpur Community Health Centre, from where doctors referred him to the Civil Hospital in Panchkula. Doctors in the Civil Hospital on finding condition of the victim further deteriorating referred him to the PGI, Chandigarh, but doctors could not save his life. In his statement in the hospital, the victim alleged that the contractor, for whom he worked, and his men had forcibly put some tablets in his mouth after severe beating when he demanded payment.

The victim’s wife, Sunita, said that her husband was very upset and started weeping after he returned home yesterday and started vomiting in due course. On the other hand, the contractor denied all allegations and said that the labourer worked for a week and was paid against the work done by him and he was being falsely implicated in this case.

Suresh Kumar, SHO of Naraingarh, said the body of the victim had been sent for a post-mortem examination and action would be taken on the report from the government forensic laboratory.

Hisar, December 29
Two youths riding a motorcycle and brandishing a sword created panic at the Talaki Gate area on Tuesday night when they attacked a car passing by.

According to the car driver who refused to be identified, he was going home after meeting a friend living in Model Town. Around 9.30 pm when he reached the Talaki Gate area he saw two youths on a motorcycle ahead of him. When he tried to overtake them he saw that the pillion rider was holding a sword and brandishing it angrily. Just as he tried to drive past them the pillion rider hit the sword on the roof of his car. He slowed down and the youths drove past him.

Then he followed them till Rishi Nagar. There he found both of them standing on the roadside with the sword. As he neared them they ran towards his car in a bid to attack him. However, he managed to escape by speeding past them.

There had been a similar incident in the city about six months ago. But the youths involved in this incident were arrested. In the recent case, there were no clues to the identity of the suspects.

Hisar, December 29
With the prices and consumption of fish rising rapidly, fish farming is fast catching the fancy of farmers in the district.

Till November this year, fish farmers in Hisar district produced a whopping 4,734 tonnes of fish which is a record.

Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal said today that by November ponds for fish farming in the district covered an area of 963 hectares. Considering the rising demand for fish, it was planned to increase this area to 1,364 hectares by March next.

The production of stored fish seed which stood at 263 lakh units in November would also be raised to 341 lakh units by the end of the current fiscal. In addition, private hatcheries had collected 431 lakh units.

Aggarwal said one of the major reasons for the popularity of fish farming was that it assured farmers of a guaranteed income in the sense that fish farming was not dependent much on natural factors such as rains and hailstorms.

He said because of the incentives given to members of the scheduled castes, several communities had taken to fish farming as their sole means of earning their livelihood. Members of these castes were trained by the government free of cost and the government provided for ponds at its own cost in villages with more than 40 per cent of the population of Scheduled Castes.

Besides, families belonging to these castes were given a subsidy of Rs 50,000 for storing water in the ponds. They were also provided shops at subsidised rates for selling their produce.

Hisar, December 29
A youth stabbed his grandmother to death in Raslana village near here yesterday in a fit of rage.

The deceased Teeja Devi (70) was living with her son, Kashmir Singh, after the death of her husband.

She was alone in her house and her grandson, Vikram (17), happened to come there. He had an argument with her over a trifle. In a fit of rage, he stabbed his grandmother repeatedly. She was injured seriously with several cuts on her body.

Her son, Kashmir Singh, rushed her to the local General Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.

Hisar, December 29
A 52-year-old farmer, Parbat Singh, died of cold in Chaudhrywas village of the district last night.

He had gone to the fields to irrigate the crop along with his son Jitendra. The duo worked in the fields for an hour after which Parbat Singh sent his son back home for some errand.

In the morning, Parbat Singh’s body was found in his field. He was taken to a private nursing home where he was declared dead. Doctors said he had died of extreme cold.

Meanwhile night temperature in the district continues to hover around freezing point for the past several days. The minimum temperature was recoded at 1 degree Celsius last night. The maximum temperature yesterday was 20.5 degrees Celsius.

Chandigarh, December 29
The state government has decided to set up a network of community radio stations in different districts of the state to provide timely and need-based information concerning the agriculture sector.

To begin with, the first-such community radio station has been set up in Hisar and has been made operational to provide the latest information concerning the farm sector. "Stations in other districts, too, will come up soon," Sukhbir Kataria, Minister of State for Agriculture, said here today.

He said the state's wheat productivity of 46.24 quintals per hectare and mustard productivity of 18.69 quintals per hectare during 2010-11 is the highest in the country. "Haryana is the second-highest contributor of wheat to the central foodgrain pool. It is also a leading state in the production of aromatic basmati rice and more than 60 per cent export of this rice (export) is undertaken from the state," he said.

Kataria said in view of the decline in the area under sugarcane from 1.40 lakh hectares in 2007-08 to 72,000 hectares in 2009-10, the state government had taken a series of initiatives to incentivise farmers for growing sugarcane in the state.

The state government has enhanced the sugarcane price to Rs 231, Rs 226 and Rs 221 per quintal for early, medium and late maturing varieties.— PTI

Chandigarh, December 29
The Haryana Police continued to be at the receiving end of the criminals during 2011. Shoddy investigations in high-profile cases, heinous crime, including honour killings, adverse comments from the courts and solving of certain long-pending cases dominated the crime scene in the state during this year

In fact, investigations continued to be the police’s Achilles’ heel. While it received a rap from a Delhi court for shoddy investigation in the Mirchpur Dalit killings case, the CBI came to its rescue in certain high-profile cases.The infamous kidnapping case of eight-year-old Tejas Gaba from Panipat had to be transferred to the CBI though the police claimed to have arrested some persons in connection with the kidnapping. Similarly, the sensational rape and murder case of Kurukshetra girl Sweety had to be transferred to the CBI. The police cracked the case after its transfer to the CBI.

The police helplessness was more than visible when former INLD MLA Baljit Singh Bali, alias Bali Pehalwan, held law and order to ransom along with his armed goons in Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s home district Rohtak for almost three weeks in May this year before surrendering at his pre-fixed date and time.

During the later part of the year, a report “Crime in India-2010” released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) of the Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) dubbed Haryana as the 12th most criminal state in the country with a violent crime rate of 27 per cent as against the national averge of 20 per cent.

On an average, the state recorded three murders and as many kidnappings daily, two rapes and robberies daily besides one dowry death.With 80,895 registered cases, Haryana accounted for more cases (70,967) than all Union Territories, including Delhi, combined together.

On the positive side, the Haryana Police took initiative to provide time-bound services to the people by fixing a deadline for police verification. Police verification is required for various purposes -- to get an arms licence, for a driving licence, passport, character certificate for going abroad and character certificate for getting into government services. Besides, in an apparent bid to curb rising accidents, the police also mooted a proposal to put “drunken drivers” behind the bars to strictly enforce the Motor Vehicles Act.

As part of the ambitious Crime and Criminal Tracking Networking System (CCTNS) project, the Haryana Police also proposed a computerised system to generate charge sheets automatically. Under the new system, all manually filled investigation forms and case files will be digitised, paving the way for the generation of charge sheets through computers.