Faridabad, January 13
In an instance of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, the Haryana Government allotted plots free of cost to 112 Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and HUDA has now acquired the piece of land on which these plots are located.

As many as 112 residents of Badoli village in the Tigaon Assembly constituency of the district were allotted residential plots measuring 100 square yards each under the Mahatma Gandhi Gramin Basti Yojna about two years ago. When the beneficiaries initiated the process to register the plots in their names, they were told that HUDA had acquired the land for a “public purpose”.

Significantly, 30 beneficiaries have already built their houses on these plots. Besides, the government has already set up a community centre there and laid roads in the area.

The plots were carved out in an area of 52 kanals which were part of the “common land” of the village and thus owned by the village panchayat.

Syam Singh, sarpanch of Badoli said, “Villagers belonging to the BPL category were provided residential plots. But now that the area has been inhabited, HUDA claims to have acquired the entire land.” The scheme was implemented through the Department of Development and Panchayats and the office of the Additional Deputy Commissioner coordinated the process.

Shyam Singh, one of the beneficiaries, said, “When we initiated the process for registering the plots in our names, we were told that the land had been acquired.” He claimed that the land was acquired after the plots were allotted.

Another beneficiary, Ali Sher Khan, said the officers had given them “tokens” specifying the plots allotted to them. “I had hoped that my old age would be secure, but the dream has turned sour,” he said.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Godara said he was ignorant about the case. He said he would inquire into the matter.

Block Development Officer (BDO), Kartar Singh, however, claimed that the beneficiaries were never given plots. He said there was only a proposal for giving them plots.

When asked specifically if it was proper to take back the plots given under a government scheme, he said “it is the government’s decision and HUDA has acquired it for a public purpose. The government has the right to do anything.”He, however, added that the government would give them plots at an alternative site. It would take some time, he added.

Significantly, the BDO was a member of the committee that had identified the prospective beneficiaries under the scheme. Estate Officer, HUDA, BS Kaliraman, refused to comment. 

Panipat, January 13
The Haryana Power Generation Engineers Association has sought intervention of the Chief Minister and the Power Minister against allowing extension in service beyond the age of superannuation to Directors and Chief Engineers working in HPGCL.

Daljit Singh, general secretary of the association, in letters sent to the Chief Minister and the Power Minister has drawn their attention to the latter’s directive to the Financial Commissioner on October 15, 2007, which stated: “I understand that four power companies continue to re-employ people from time to time based on exigencies of a particular situation. It may be pointed that re-employment definitely denies a chance of promotion to employees, who are in service. This causes a certain amount of heart-burning, besides affecting the efficiency and morale of serving employees.”

But this was continuing in HPGCL at the Director’s level, the general secretary said. He said this was certainly taking a toll on the overall efficiency of the power utility and thus the Chief Minister should immediately intervene and ensure that corrective measures were taken.

It may be mentioned that the issue was also discussed by engineers’ associations with the Power Minister on August 5, 2011, in the presence of all MDs of power utilities. Daljit Singh said the majority view at that meeting was that no extension should be allowed beyond the superannuation age of 58 years.

However, some of the chosen few continued to get elevated to higher managerial posts while others, though equally efficient and competent, faced stagnation for a long period and were even denied their rightful and due rank on account of tampering with the promotion channel, Daljit Singh said.

He contended that if the issue was not resolved soon, a strategy would be drawn to get the demand accepted.

Hisar, January 13
Haryana Janhit Congress (BL) chief Kuldeep Bishnoi, MP, has said that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should quit as even Congressmen had now endorsed the charge against him that he was concentrating on just one district in Haryana. In a statement issued here he said he had been repeatedly saying for the past seven years that Hooda was allocating development funds and projects to only a particular area and not equitably to the entire state.

However, now several Congressmen, including senior leaders like Rao Inderjit, had levelled similar allegations against the Chief Minister from a public platform. Under the circumstances Hooda should admit his fault and put in his papers.

Criticising the government, he said, even otherwise Hooda should not stay in office as he had failed to deliver on all fronts. The law and order situation had been deteriorating under his rule and a peaceful town like Hisar had become the crime capital of Haryana. The farmers were feeling the heat as there was an acute and artificially created shortage of fertilisers and other agricultural inputs.

Chandigarh, January 13
The whereabouts of former IPS officer RR Singh’s inquiry report in the Ruchika molestation case are not known, apparently. As a petition filed in public interest for a comprehensive probe into the molestation case came up for hearing this morning, the State of Haryana informed the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it did not have the file.

The development is significant as the then IGP, RR Singh, in the inquiry, had indicted Rathore for molesting Ruchika in 1990. The inquiry report was submitted on September 3, 1990.

Fixing January 20 as the next date of hearing in the case, the Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Augustine George Masih asserted, “Ajay Kaushik, counsel for the CBI, will inform the court as to the present whereabouts of the file pertaining to the inquiry conducted by the then IGP, Haryana, RR Singh.”

The high court, on the previous date of hearing, had made it clear that the Bench would go deep into the issues of inquiry against Haryana’s former top cop SPS Rathore, his promotion and the victim’s expulsion from the school in the Ruchika molestation case.

The Bench had asked for the inquiry report by Rathore’s immediate superior, RR Singh; the promotion file showing the stages and the ways Rathore was elevated; and the inquiry report on Ruchika’s expulsion from her school. So far none of these documents have been placed before the court.

Rathore, who retired as the Director-General of police, was promoted even though he was facing allegations of molestation by his daughter’s class fellow, Ruchika Girhotra.

Sirsa, January 13
INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala has alleged that the UPA government at the Centre had sealed the fate of small traders by allowing FDI in retail. Chautala said retail business had been providing livelihood to a large population in India and if the government opened the doors to Wal-Mart and others, small retailers would be completely ruined.

Terming the UPA government at the Centre and the Congress government in Haryana as anti-people and anti-farmers, Chautala alleged that the state government was doing every endeavour to ruin agriculture.

“Earlier, farmers struggled for cotton seeds and DAP fertiliser but now even urea was not available,” Chautala alleged. He added that farmers’ produce was not getting remunerative prices in the market because of the anti-farmers policies of the government.

He maintained that development activities had come to a standstill in Haryana and alleged that the Chief Minister had been making false promises.

“Hooda announced a package of Rs 300 crore for Ratia after the byelection though no work has yet started,” the INLD leader alleged.

Sirsa, January 13
The INLD has given a call for a bandh to protest against the failure of the police to nab culprits of a robbery in which miscreants snatched a bag containing Rs 11.67 lakh from a sugar trader after injuring him on December 26. INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala today served an ultimatum on the police, saying that if the culprits were not nabbed by by January 19, the party would organise a complete Dabwali bandh on January 20 .

Governor Jagannath Pahadia and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda are scheduled to come to Sirsa on January 20.

While Hooda will be the chief guest at the convocation being organised by Chaudhary Devi Lal University here on January 20, Governor Jagannath Pahadia, Chancellor of the university, will preside over it.

Vice-Chancellor KC Bhardwaj said this would be the first convocation by the university ever since it came into being in 2002.

Fatehabad, January 13
Is the proposed nuclear energy project at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad headed towards doom after the rejection of rates of land offered to them by the farmers?

The tough postures adopted by the authorities and the officers of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) on the one hand and the farmers — both those opposed to the project and those in favour of it - on the other hand on rates of land indicate that the project might be heading towards a slow death.

A committee headed by the Commissioner, Hisar Division, MP Bansal, had yesterday offered rates of Rs 20 lakh and Rs 32 lakh respectively for the non-irrigated and irrigated land, but the farmers had spurned the offer.

In the meantime, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday issued notices to Haryana, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the NPCIL, and the Ministry of Environment and Forests on a plea challenging the acquisition of land for the project.

A division Bench of the high court also issued notices to the Land Acquisition Collector, Fatehabad.

Terming the exercise of land acquisition by Haryana “arbitrary, unjust, whimsical and against law”, the petitioners, as many as 60 villagers, have sought quashing of the notifications issued by the state for setting up the nuclear power project.

The senior officers of the NPCIL did not seem too keen to pursue the Gorakhpur project if they were to face such a stiff opposition from the farmers.

“As of now, we are not abandoning the project as we are still optimistic that the farmers will accept the offer. But, we plan to focus our attention on Balsamand, another site offered to us by the Haryana Government,” said TR Arora, Chief Project Engineer (Haryana Projects) of the NPCIL.

The Haryana Government had recently suggested two more sites - Balsamand (Hisar) and Kitlana (Bhiwani) - and the NPCIL now plans to focus its attention on Balsamand first, where the land is readily available and that, too, at much cheaper rates.

The NPCIL has invested a lot of funds in Gorakhpur on various pre-project activities like visits for site selection, area earthquake studies, flood analysis, among others.

Sanjay Gumasta, project manager for Gorakhpur, said the NPCIL had taken up the project after the site selection by a committee approved by the Government of India.

Any decision relating to the project based on the circumstances will be taken by the NPCIL management according to the direction of the Union Government, he added. 

Hisar, January 13
Most of the communities, which have demanded reservation in government jobs in their memoranda, submitted to the Haryana Backward Classes Commission on the last day of its sitting here yesterday, have based their claims on economic backwardness.

The commission is entertaining suggestions and objections from all communities though it is looking especially at Jat, Jat Sikh, Rod, Tyagi and Bishnoi communities. Leaders of the delegations of these communities had extensive deliberations with the members of the commission.

It is learnt that the Jats have based their claim on the fact that being an agrarian community, they are facing economic hardship as their land holdings have decreased to a point where farming is no longer a profitable business. The economic hardships had deprived their youth of proper education especially in villages. The rural Jat youths cannot compete for jobs unless they are given the benefit of reservation.

The memoranda submitted by various Jat delegations pointed out that the Jat community in Delhi and Rajasthan had benefited immensely from the reservation given to them. It has been pointed out that the Gurnam Singh Commission had also suggested reservations for the community several years ago. The Jat Sikhs have also given almost the same reasoning as Jats.

Sources said the Bishnois had based their claim on their economic and educational backwardness. Delegations of the community brought to the notice of the commission that the community had for generations been economically backward.

It was stated that the members of the community were pre-dominantly based in villages and not many of them owned large tracts of land. The areas in which the community was settled had been backward and without proper educational facilities even now. It was brought to the notice of the commission that the community was educationally backward and that in a majority of cases the younger generation was the first generation to had access to graduate level education.

Sonepat, January 13
As all facilities required for opening a medical college have already been provided at the BPS women’s medical college and hospital, Khanpur Kalan, the All-India Medical Council was likely to accord permission soon to run the first batch of the MBBS classes in the institution.

This was stated by the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Health Services Department of Haryana, Navraj Sandhu, after inaugurating a blood bank, a DOT unit and a website on the institution’s premises today. “We have already applied to the council for permission and it was likely to be given very soon,” she claimed.

She said the government had already sanctioned 150 posts of doctor and, if required, more posts would also be sanctioned, for this one of the prestigious institutes of the state government. Special monthly incentives of Rs 20,000 and Rs 8,000 had also been sanctioned for the postgraduate and graduate doctors respectively for serving in this institute, located in a rural area, she added.

The Director of the institute, Dr RC Siwach, said that the hospital had achieved a daily OPD of around 600 patients within the past four months after commencing it on a trial basis. The hospital had been equipped with 300-bedded capacity within a short period.

The occasion was marked by distribution of 100 blankets donated by Lakhi Ram Orphanage among the needy employees of the institute. The orphanage also gave utensils for the hospital mess. 

Rohtak, January 13
The Sarva Karamchari Sangh (SKS), Haryana, a leading federation of state government employees, has threatened to revive the stir against the state government in view of the non-consistency in the stand of the authorities regarding the policy of acceptance and implementation of the demands that had been raised in the past few years. The SKS would also take part in the nationwide protest scheduled to be held on February 28 regarding the privatisation policy of the Union and state governments.

A spokesperson of the SKS said despite the acceptance and an agreement reached between federation representatives and senior state government officials, the authorities concerned were not showing seriousness to honour the agreements and had been resorting to tactics that threatens to adversely affect the result of the talks held so far. He said the SKS was ready to revive the agitation in view of the alleged non-cooperation and dilly-dallying attitude of the authorities concerned as majority of the demands that had been accepted in the past one year had not been implemented so far.

The demands, which are still pending included regularisation of the services of thousands of employees working part-time or on contractual basis for the past several years, removal of anomalies in the pay grades of several categories, recruitment and filling up of the vacant posts in various departments and an acceptable framework regarding the policy of outsourcing.

Hisar, January 13
The police today arrested a most wanted criminal, Rohit, belonging to Najafgarh in Delhi, who was wanted in cases of extortion, murder and looting in Delhi, UP and Haryana.

Rohit was involved in the murder of Shiv Kumar, a schoolteacher, near Narnaund in this district some time ago. The police had been trying to nab him for several months.

The police also arrested his friend, Naresh Moth, who is also involved in the murder of the schoolteacher. The duo were arrested from Majra Piyayu village. On a tipoff that the duo were heading for Narnaund, a special police team laid a trap and nabbed the two criminals.

The police said five youths had murdered the schoolteacher when he was on his way to the school on October 20 last year. Three of them had been arrested after the murder but these two had absconded.

During interrogation Rohit has confessed to the schoolteacher’s murder. He has also confessed to kidnapping a boy from Nithari in UP and then extorting a ransom of Rs 1.30 crore from his family.

The criminal has also admitted to committing murders, stealing cars and looting petrol pumps in Gurgaon district. He was planning to kidnap a Gurgaon-based businessman next week.