Mahendragarh, January 8
Rao Inderjeet Singh, Congress MP from Gurgaon and former Union minister, has demanded restoration of the slab system for irrigation and supply of rainwater to the water-starved agricultural fields of south Haryana, which had been waiting for canal water for the past several decades.

Addressing a “Chetna rally” here today, Rao Inderjeet maintained that discriminatory approach towards south Haryana, unequal distribution of irrigation water, jobs and developmental projects would not be tolerated.

“In south Haryana, we have got canals but there is hardly any water for irrigation,? merely 2 per cent of agricultural land here is irrigated by canal water. Still, our farmers get eight-hour power supply, as is supplied to places where 60 to 80 per cent land is irrigated by canals,” he pointed out.

The rally was attended by Mahendragarh DCC president Rao Ram Singh, Gurgaon DCC (urban) president GL Sharma, Rewari DCC president Banwari Lal, Gurgaon Mayor Vimal Yadav, former Haryana Congress spokesperson Ved Prakash Vidrohi and other supporters of Rao Inderjeet from the Ahirwal belt, including Gurgaon, Mewat, Rewari and Mahendragarh areas.

Coming down heavily on the Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in Haryana, Rao Inderjeet asserted that the state Congress would not be allowed to become anybody’s pocket party and hoped that the party’s central leadership would do the needful in this regard.

He pointed out that though Gurgaon alone was contributing more than 50 per cent revenue to the state exchequer, the entire south Haryana belt, including Gurgaon, was not getting its due share in development.

“If a thanksgiving package of Rs 300 crore can be given to Ratia, why can’t an annual matching grant be provided to Mahendragarh? he questioned.

The MP accused the Hooda government of taking undue credit for projects sanctioned and funded by the Central Government like the Central University at Mahendragarh, National Defence University at Binaula, medical colleges at Mewat and Faridabad, Railway freight corridor, among others.

With certain opportunist and turncoat leaders at the helm of state affairs, old and loyal Congressmen were being sidelined, the MP reiterated. However, as a disciplined soldier of the Congress, he had full faith in its central leadership, the former union minister said.

“I firmly believe that the Congress is a mass-based party and the party high command would not allow anybody to take it for granted,” he said.

While Rao Inderjeet remained cautious and balanced in his speech, many of his supporters addressing the gathering from the dais levelled serious allegations of massive and high-level corruption in grant of change of land use (CLUs) permissions.

Some of Rao’s supporters categorically stated that their ultimate target was “chaudhar” for south Haryana and “Chandigarh ki kursi”.

Sirsa, January 8
After the Congress MP from Gurgaon, Rao Inderjit Singh’s allegations that South Haryana was being ignored in the Bhupinder Singh Hooda regime, Jagdish Nehra, a former minister and a senior Congress leader from Sirsa, has alleged that old loyal party workers were being ignored in Haryana and that development activities in Haryana were limited to a particular area.

Nehra, who is considered close to Union Minister Selja, alleged today that while the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the AICC secretary Rahul Gandhi had always given due respect to party men, the committed workers had not only been ignored in the Hooda regime in Haryana, but they have also been denied their due share in power.

The former minister, who was a minister in the Bhajan Lal government from 1982 to 1987 and again from 1991 to 1996, was addressing a series of meetings in Banwala, Risalkheria, Bijuwali, Godikan and Kaluana villages, all coming under the Dabwali Assembly segment of Sirsa.

Nehra has been addressing meetings all over the district, which, he said, were a part of his personal-contact programme and were for motivating the party workers for working in Punjab poll.

He said the government had neither nominated chairmen, vice-chairmen and members of the market committees in Haryana nor has it appointed chairmen of the improvement trusts.

Earlier, speaking in villages falling under the Rania Assembly segment yesterday, Nehra alleged that all development in Haryana was limited to a particular area while the rest of the state was being ignored.

“A particular area of Haryana is witnessing the construction of new roads, flyovers and educational institutions while the rest of the state is being overlooked,” Nehra alleged.

He said regional disparity in the matter of development was not in the interest of the party and the Congress leadership should work for equitable development of the state.

Interestingly, the District Congress president, Malkiat Singh Khosa, who also accompanied Nehra during his village tour yesterday, said these might be Nehra’s personal views, but he did not subscribe to these.

Khosa, who is considered the Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar’s loyalist, said Sirsa, too, has witnessed a lot of development activities during the six years of Hooda regime.

“The panchayats all over the state have been getting funds for development equitably and there is no regional discrimination of any sorts,” Khosa claimed. 

Jind, January 8
“The seven-year long rule of the Congress government in Haryana has failed to ameliorate the problems of the common man and it has, in fact, resulted in victimisation and cheating of the voters in various ways.”

This is the claim of the state BJP chief, Krishan Pal Gurjar, who has announced that his party will take up several issues more forcefully in order to put pressure on the government and to create mass awareness.

Talking to mediapersons during his visit here today, Gurjar claimed that there was hardly any achievement of which the present state government could be proud. Describing the land acquisition policy of the UP government as better than that of Haryana, he said it was surprising that the Congress leaders had been criticising the UP government’s policy while hailing Haryana in this regard.

Alleging that while the agricultural land was being acquired at much lesser rates than the market prices in Haryana, he added that various sections of society, including the farmers, the labourers, the traders, and the employees had been feeling cheated and suffocated due to anti- people policies and moves of the Congress government during the past seven years.

Demanding a White Paper on the development works done during this period, he alleged that the only feature that stood out under this rule was property dealing, which, he said, was the favourite past time of the ruling party leaders.

He said the decision of first withdrawing the house tax and reimposing it was a betrayal of the voters. Similarly, he said, the issues, including acute power and water shortages, irregularities in BPL cards, a deteriorating law and order situation, poor condition of roads and resentment regarding the old-age pension were examples of failures of the state government.

He said the BJP was against providing reservation to the Muslim community from the quota of the Backward Classes.

Sirsa, January 8
The authorities here received over 200 applications from property dealers for their registration under the Haryana Regulations for the Property Dealers and Consultancy Act 2008 towards the end of 2011.

Though the rules had come into force for the past three years, the property dealers in the district had been avoiding their registration under the Act.

Hardly 30 out of the 290-odd property dealers in Sirsa were registered under the new Act before the authorities acted tough on the issue.

The provisions of the Act are aimed at safeguarding the interests of the people using services of property dealers, property consultants and real estate agents.

According to the Act, no property dealer or his representative without obtaining a licence could enter into transactions of sale, purchase, exchange, letting or taking on lease between the buyer and seller, lessor and lessee, landlord and tenant, including the collection of rent in respect of immovable property with anybody in any manner.

Besides fixing the commission charges for the agents, the Act also aims at checking fly-by-night operators, those not indulging in healthy real estate practices.

With the property dealers adopting dilly-dallying tactics, the district authorities had set a deadline of December 31 for this purpose. 

Karnal, January 8
Enraged over the failure of the police to arrest the culprits involved in the Balbir Singh murder case, hundreds of farmers under the banner of the Kisan Union today held an angry demonstration and gheraoed Indri police station.

The farmers were protesting against the police “inaction” and allege that even after six days of the incident, the police has made no headway and no arrest has been made.

The gherao, which lasted over an hour, was lifted after Karnal City DSP Joginder Rathi and police station in charge Manoj Verma reached the spot and assured the farmers that the culprits would be arrested soon.

They said the case had been handed over to the CIA and several investigation teams had been formed and dispatched to UP and other places and asserted that the police was investigating the case seriously.

The protesters led by the Kisan Union president, Gurnam Singh, raised slogans against the administration and demanded a compensation of Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of Balbir Singh (45), a resident of Gobindgarh village in Kurukshetra district, who was found lying in a pool of blood along the roadside near the Bhadson sugar mill and the killers had fled with his sugarcane-laden tractor, mobile phone and cash on the night of January 2.

The farmers were annoyed over the casual approach of the police and held a "mahapanchayat" at Anaj mandi under the leadership of the Kisan Union and later marched to the police station.

The protesters were furious when no senior police officer reached the spot and gheraoed the police station and were pacified only after the DSP and the police station in charge reached Indri and listened to their demands.

Jhajjar, January 8
The Haryana Government has decided to constitute a Water and Sanitation Committee (WSC) under the National Rural Drinking Water programme in every village to ensure sufficient availability of potable water, besides drainage of filthy water from the villages.

Besides government officials, residents of the village concerned will also be made members of the committee for running the programme .

Interestingly, functioning of these village committees will be monitored by a state-level special committee chaired by the Chief Secretary of the state government. The special committee will issue directions from time to time regarding the proficient implementation of the programme.

The Jhajjar Deputy Commissioner, Ajit Balaji Joshi, while stating this here said the move aimed at enhancing the active participation of villagers in executing the government schemes especially pertaining to drinking water and sanitation so that the villagers did not face any problem in availing themselves of basic amenities like drinking water, sanitation and drainage of dirty water.

“The committees will be formed by the Public Health Department following the guidelines of the Water Supply Department of the Ministry of Rural Development in this regard. The village panchayat will play a pivotal role in this programme as the sarpanch of the village concerned will be president of the committee and all panches will discharge their duty as members of the committee. Hence, village panchayat will be accountable for running the programme efficiently,” said the Deputy Commissioner.

Joshi said a coordination committee would also be formed at the district level to assist the village committees in carrying out the drinking water and sanitation programme in their villages.

Fatehabad, January 8
The two-day fifth district-level conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) concluded here today with the determination to expand the influence of the party among the common people.

For this purpose, resolutions were passed on various burning issues, including food security, a universal Public Distribution System and the “deepening agrarian crisis” in Haryana.

The party passed a special resolution to oppose the proposed Gorakhpur atomic power project and condemned the state government’s “gross indifference to people's unwillingness for such a project and ignoring the safety concerns”.

A 16-member district committee of the CPM was constituted with Ram Kumar Bahbalpuria re-elected as the party’s district secretary.

Earlier, inaugurating the conference yesterday, Inderjit Singh, state secretary of the party, said the party reiterated its vow to oppose the “capitalist” and “anti-people forces” that worked against the peasants and common people.

He said the party derived its strength from the peasants and workers and hence the capitalist forces and corporate houses that worked against them, would face the party’s opposition. He said for the capitalist forces, profit took precedence over people’s welfare.

Inderjit Singh lambasted as “false propaganda launched by the capitalist ideologues” that socialism had withered away with the dismantling of the Soviet Union and there was no alternative to capitalism.

Alleging a growing disillusionment of the people with the capitalist system and its attendant chronic problems like poverty, unemployment and rising prices in the country, he said socialism was the only answer to these problems.

The CPM state secretary criticised the Manmohan Singh government for having failed to enact the much-awaited anti-corruption Lokpal Bill in the winter session.

Bahbalpuria, district secretary of the CPM, presented the report containing the activities and proposed programmes of the district unit of the party. 

Sirsa, January 8
Sirsa district now has 7,58,574 voters in the five Assembly segments of Dabwali, Sirsa, Rania, Ellenabad and Kalanwali.

As per the final photo electoral rolls published by the district authorities, Dabwali has the maximum number of 1,60,008 voters followed by Sirsa (1,56,817), Ellenabad (1,48,161), Rania (1,47,160) and Kalawali (1,45, 728).

In Fatehabad, 5,51, 928 voters have been registered in the three Assembly segments falling under the district as per the final photo electoral rolls published on January 5. Fatehabad Assembly segment leads in the district with the maximum number of 1,96, 682 voters. Tohana (1,79, 621 voters) and Ratia (1,75, 625 voters) are the other two Assembly segments falling under Fatehabad district. The authorities have told voters that those left out could apply on Form 6 up to January 15.

Fatehabad/Sirsa, January 8
INLD workers from Fatehabad and Sirsa districts will soon leave for the neighbouring Assembly constituencies of Punjab, where they will work for the victory of SAD candidates in the Assembly elections there.

Abhey Singh Chautala, INLD MLA from Ellenabad, today addressed meetings of the INLD workers at Fatehabad and Sirsa to assign them duties for the Punjab Assembly elections. Speaking at a meeting organised at the Rangoli Resorts in Fatehabad, Chautala said the INLD’s relations with the SAD were time tested and both parties had been extending support to each other during elections in each other’s state. He told his party workers to reach the constituencies assigned to them by the party and work hard for the victory of the SAD nominees there.

Chautala said the results of the coming Assembly elections in the five states would have a far-reaching effect on the national politics and claimed that these would pave the way for mid-term polls in the country. He told workers from the Ratia Assembly constituency in Fatehabad to reach Sardulgarh in the support of a SAD candidate Dilraj Singh Bhunder.

He said the party would set up its own offices in the constituencies where its workers would be assigned duties and restrained his workers from putting any financial burden on a candidate for fuel or any other expenses.

Later talking to mediapersons, Chautala said the INLD had influence in over 14 to 15 seats of Punjab that are on the Haryana border and his party workers would work for the SAD candidates on these seats. Asked whether the party would work for BJP candidates too, Chautala said the party would take a decision, if the BJP made any such request, because the prime objective of the INLD was to defeat the Congress.

The INLD leaders said while his party workers from Ratia would proceed for Sardulgarh, those from the Tohana Assembly seat would go to their influence areas in Lehra and Sangrur in Punjab.

Similarly, the INLD workers from Dabwali would campaign for Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who is contesting from the Lambi Assembly seat that shares its boundaries with Dabwali villages and workers from Kalanwali will proceed for the nearby Talwandi Sabo Assembly seat, he said.

Rohtak, January 8
“There will be no disparity in the salaries of employees of the Power Department in Haryana and the power workers’ union will be taken into confidence before allowing franchise of power distribution work in various districts.”

This assurance was given by Power Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav to a delegation of the All-Haryana Power Corporation Workers Union during a meeting recently.

Claiming this, Subhash Lamba, a spokesperson of the union, said the issue of sharp disparity in the pay scales of various categories of the employees of the department had been taken with the minister during the meeting.

Stating that while the matter had been a cause for concern and resentment among a large chunk of the staff, he said the policy of privatisation and outsourcing had resulted in discrimination in the wage structure.

Alleging disparity, he said employees of the same department but posted in different districts had been getting different wages due to causes inherent in the policy structure.

He said according to the decision taken by the state government and the assurance given by the minister, the post of the SA, Assistant Lineman (ALM), SSA and JE would be given wages amounting to Rs 5,800, Rs 6,000, Rs 8,000 and Rs 9,200, respectively, after the change.

He said the JE, SA and the ALM posted in some districts including Fatehabad, Rewari, Mahendergarh, Kaithal, Palwal and Gurgaon had been getting different wages despite their posts being in the same grade.

He said Capt Ajay Singh Yadav had assured to end the disparity in the wage structure and to discuss the allocation of franchises to private companies for power supply and distribution work in Panipat and Gurgaon districts at the initial level.

The union has also announced a demonstration at the offices of the zonal commissioners of PF and ESI from January 13 for a probe into the alleged scam relating to the EPF and ESI contribution of the employees to the tune of several crores of rupees.

Chandigarh, January 8
The state-level Republic Day function of Haryana will be held at Ambala on January 26, 2012, where the Haryana Governor Jagannath Pahadia will unfurl the National Flag. The 'At Home' will also be organised at Ambala on that evening. The Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, will hoist the National Flag at Panipat.

The Speaker, Haryana Vidhan Sabha, Kuldeep Sharma, will unfurl the National Flag on Republic Day at Hisar, Deputy Speaker Akram Khan at Jhajjar, Finance Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha at Kaithal, Power Minister Ajay Singh Yadav at Yamunanagar, Industries Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala at Jind, Revenue Minister Mahender Partap Singh at Sirsa, Agriculture Minister Paramvir Singh at Karnal, Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal at Panchkula, Health Minister Narender Singh at Mewat(Nuh) and Cooperation Minister Satpal Sangwan at Gurgaon.

Similarly, Minister of State for Labour and Employment Shiv Charan Lal Sharma will unfurl the National Flag at Rewari, Minister of State for Local Government Gopal Kanda at Sonepat, Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Sukhbir Kataria at Faridabad. Among the chief parliamentary secretaries, Anita Yadav will unfurl the flag at Fatehabad, Rao Dan Singh at Bhiwani, Dharambir Singh at Kurukshetra and Jaiveer at Rohtak.

Jaleb Khan will hoist the National Flag at Gohana, Prahlad Singh Gillakhera at Dadri, Ram Kishan Fouji at Narwana, Sharda Rathore at Hansi, Sultan Singh at Palwal, chief parliamentary secretary Ram Kishan at Shahbad, Vinod Bhayana at Bahadurgarh and the Chairman, 20-Point Programme, Phool Chand Mullana, at Barwala.

If any minister did not reach the place of function on time, the National Flag will be hoisted by the Deputy Commissioner concerned. At Subdivisional headquarters, National Flags will be hoisted by the SDMs concerned.

Chandigarh, January 8
With a view to preventing trafficking of women and children and rescue and rehabilitate the victims, the Haryana Government has implemented centrally sponsored “Ujjawala” scheme in the state.

While stating this here on Friday, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the scheme would facilitate rescue of victims from the place of their exploitation, keep them in safe custody and will provide rehabilitation services.

Besides facilitating repatriation of cross-border victims to their country of origin, the scheme would also ensure reintegration of the victims into the family and society. All the Deputy Commissioners had been asked to submit proposals for rehabilitation of sex workers under the scheme, she added.

Bhukkal said the Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY), which is a centrally sponsored scheme, had also been implemented in Panchkula district on a pilot basis to promote the health and the nutrition status of pregnant and lactating women.

Under the scheme, eligible pregnant lactating mothers will get Rs 4,000 and the first instalment of Rs 1,500 would be given at the end of second trimester of pregnancy provided that the pregnancy was registered within four months and she had received at least one antenatal check-up, IFA tablets, at least one TT vaccination and attended one counselling session at the Anganwari Centre or on Village Health and Nutrition Day. She said the second instalment of Rs 1,500 would be given at the end of three months of delivery if the child birth was registered, the child had received BCG, polio and DPT-I and II vaccination and had been weighed at least two times after birth and the mother had attended at least two Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) counselling sessions at the Anganwari Centre or on Village Health and Nutrition Day or on home visit.

She said the third instalment of Rs 1,000 would be given when the infant would complete six months of age, if the child had been exclusively breast-fed for the first six months, introduced complementary foods on completion of six months of age, received polio and DPT III vaccination and had been weighed at least two times between age of three and six months and the mother had attended at least two IYCF counselling sessions between three and six months of lactation.

A sum of Rs 50.01 lakh had already been transferred to the bank account of 2,499 beneficiaries under the scheme, she added. 

Rohtak, January 8
Octave, a cultural bonanza featuring folk music and dances of the North-Eastern states of India, concluded at Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here. The two-day cultural programme was inaugurated by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda who gave a call to preserve the rich cultural heritage of the nation.

Folk dances from Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim were presented during the programme.

The North Central Zone Cultural Centre, Allahabad, has been organising “Octave” in collaboration with the Information, Public Relations and Cultural Department of Haryana and MDU for a few years now.

Earlier, the Chief Minister laid the foundation stones of several building projects in MDU. He also inaugurated a three-storeyed bio-sciences block. 

Jhajjar, January 8
With a view to improve the skills of gunmen in handling the weapons, Ranjeev Singh Dalal, Haryana DGP, has directed the district police authorities to organise a firing practice programme for at least one week at the Police Lines concerned with immediate effect.

A communique in this regard has recently been shot off to the IGs and SPs of every district in the state from the DGP office. The DGP in the communique has said: “Keeping in view of prevailing security scenario, it has been imperative to impart special training to each gunman posted at different level at the district headquarters about the use of various sorts of weapons so that they could handle these weapons efficiently whenever require.”

It has been observed several times that most of the police personnel posted at the district headquarters are not fully skilled in operating their weapons proficiently owing to lack of training programme at regular interval. In this situation, policemen are required to be trained about handling of their weapons so that they can use them properly at the time of action, said police sources.

The DGP has also directed the IGs, CPs and SPs to intensify their touring programme to collect intelligence regarding party feuds, old enmity, land disputes etc so that preventive measures could accordingly be adopted to ensure peace, safety and harmony in the society.

“The IGPs, CPs and SPs must chalk out their monthly ‘charter of function’ to control the crime of various sort in their area concerned as it will certainly turn out to be a concrete step to improve our performance at all levels,” said the DGP.

Karnal, January 8
Piqued by increasing violation of traffic laws and implementation of traffic rules posing a challenge, the Karnal police has taken yet another initiative to involve schoolchildren to regulate traffic.

Realising that students could be effective and responsive in checking traffic violations, the district police has urged the schools to incorporate “traffic awareness’ in the curriculum and make it a part of the Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW).

The police has prepared a 15-minute video CD to create awareness about traffic rules and distributed the same to schools, after formally launching it. The CD contains rules, regulations and traffic violations, dos and don’ts for drivers and pedestrians, precautions and general information.

The district police also distributed the Haryana Traffic Rules booklets. Principals of 35 out of 54 schools have already given their consent to include traffic awareness in the curriculum. Rakesh Arya, Karnal SP, said the police would also help the school authorities in conducting tests and preparing questionnaire and the subject would be compulsory for students of class VI to X.

Shehzadpur (Ambala), January 8
The Ambala police organised a traffic awareness programme at Shehzadpur yesterday. AS many as 237 traffic rule violators were challaned during a drive organised on the occasion .

PK Mehta, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Urban), also spoke on traffic safety norms at Shehzadpur police station.

The DCP said stern action would be taken against rash driving, driving vehicles in wrong lanes, parking vehicles on the roadside, smoking while driving or driving under the influence of liquor, using mobile phones while driving and overloaded vehicles. 

Chandigarh, January 8
The Haryana Government has constituted the Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Council under the chairmanship of the Director, Industries and Commerce, Mines and Geology, to receive claims from the suppliers located within the state for payment of their dues pending with the private sector as well as the public sector organisations.

A spokesman of the Industries and Commerce Department said its members would include General Manager, Haryana Financial Corporation, or his representative not below the rank of the Assistant General Manager, company secretary, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation, the president or his representative not below the rank of the General Secretary of a prominent industrial association in the state and technical expert (mechanical engineer), the Department of Industries and Commerce. The council, which would operate from the office of the Director of Industries and Commerce, would meet, as far as possible, once in a month.

He said as per the provisions of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act, 2006, enacted by the Union Government, the payment for the goods and services rendered by the micro or small enterprise suppliers was to be made within 45 days from the day of acceptance or day of deemed acceptance. In case any buyer failed to pay the amount to the supplier within the stipulated period, he would be liable to pay compound interest at the rate of three times the bank rate (fixed by the Reserve Bank of India) on delayed payments.