Chandigarh, February 3
The Haryana Government’s scheme of disbursing social security pensions through banks, for which it won “State of the Year Skoch Financial Inclusion Award-2012” for opening two million accounts of beneficiaries,has flopped.

Taking a U-turn on the disbursal of pensions to beneficiaries under various social security schemes, including the old-age, widow and destitute-women pension schemes, the Hooda government has reverted to the old “discredited” system of disbursing pensions manually through local urban bodies and panchayats, which led to allegations of irregularities and bunglings in the past.

A decision to this effect was taken at a recent high-level meeting presided over by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.In a clear case of one-upmanship, the meeting had blamed the banks for the failure of the scheme, alleging that the banks deployed a “grossly inadequate infrastructure”.

While the pensions will now be paid manually through the respective urban local bodies in the urban areas, in the rural areas these would be paid through the sarpanch with the assistance of certain other officials.In the past, the role of the elected representatives and certain lower-level officials had come under a cloud for irregularities and bunglings in the disbursement of pension, following which the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment opted for “electronic benefit transfer” mechanism of payment of pensions through banks.

The sudden turnaround on the pension disbursal by the state government for “political reasons” has raised many an eyebrow. “It is a purely political decision by the state government and we have no other option but to implement the old system, which unfortunately was not very transparent and hassle-free,” a senior official, who attended the meeting, told The Tribune.

A senior banker, whose bank was involved in the project in the NCR, expressed surprise at the decision, claiming that blaming banks for the scheme’s failure was “in bad taste”. Given the fact that banks started the scheme only last year, the government should have extended help and given more time to the banks in implementating the scheme, he said.

On the other hand, government sources claimed that the decision had been taken in public interest as the pensioners had been alleging delay in getting pension through the banks particularly in the rural areas. The state government was open to the idea of disbursal through the banks as and when the banks establish adequate infrastructure in the urban and the rural areas, the sources claimed.

Chandigarh, February 3
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the criteria for allotting plots to ex-servicemen on the basis of ranks they held in active service.

The significant directions came on a bunch of seven petitions filed by The Hisar Ex-Naval Personnel Welfare Society and other petitioners against the state of Haryana and another respondent.

In the petitions placed before the Division Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and GS Sandhawalia, the petitioners had sought directions for quashing the conditions in the application form that “ex-servicemen shall be entitled to apply for a plot keeping in view the ranks they held while in active service”.

Going into the background of the controversy, the petitioners had contended that an advertisement inviting applications for allotment of residential plots in Sector 6, Jhajjar, was issued by HUDA.

As per the eligibility criteria, “officers of the rank of Colonel and above and equivalent rank of the Navy and the Air Force/paramilitary forces were eligible to apply for one kanal plots only”.

Other commissioned officers up to lieutenant-colonel and equivalent rank were eligible for 14 marla and 10 marla plots only. JCOs and other ranks were eligible for plots of eight, six and four marlas.”

The petitioners had contended that “the classification to submit an application for allotment of a particular size of a plot, based upon the rank held by the applicant at one point of time, is without any reasonable nexus with the objective to be achieved and consequently unsustainable”.

Allowing the present petition, the Bench asserted: “A Division Bench of this court in Prem Singh's case has found that the classification for allotment of a plot, based upon the rank of an officer, is unreasonable.

“Such finding is binding on the present Division Bench. Therefore, this court cannot re-examine the question of legality of classification.

“Consequently, the present writ petition is allowed. The eligibility criteria for allotment of a plot, dependent upon the rank held by an applicant, cannot be sustained and is set aside”.

Jind, February 3
The police has booked 11 persons, including the sarpanch of Kharal village of Narwana subdivision in the district, in connection with the “murder” of a youth of the village a couple of weeks ago. No arrest has been made so far.

It is alleged that the accused, including Rattan Singh, the sarpanch of the village, had been involved in the conspiracy that led to the murder of the victim, Navin (21), whose body was found near the railway track on January 13. Navin, who had gone missing on January 12, had failed to inform or return to his kin at the time of the incident. His body was found lying in a mutilated condition near the railway line passing nearby. It was suspected that he had been assaulted and clubbed to death by someone before his body was dumped at the spot.

The body was identified by his relatives on February 1. The investigation and interrogation of the suspected persons led to the disclosure that several persons were involved in the “murder”, including the sarpanch of the village, said police sources.

Family members and residents of the village met the DSP on Thursday and told him that Navin had been murdered after a conspiracy by some persons. It is claimed that Navin had gone to the house of another resident after he was contacted and asked to reach there by a woman. The sarpanch had allegedly taken the body of the victim to dump it near the railway line on the fateful night, it is alleged. Though the main cause of the murder was still unknown, sources claimed that it could be the result of an affair with a girl. 

Sirsa, February 3
Former Minister and senior Congress MLA Sampat Singh has moved the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC) against the annual revenue returns (ARR) submitted by the two power utilities -- DHBVN and UHBVN)-- for the year 2012-13. Raising several objections to the ARR, the Congress leader said this would put extra burden on both domestic and industrial consumers.

Hearing on the objections will be held on February 14 and February 15. The two distribution companies (Discoms) of Haryana --DHBVN and UHBVN -- have to file the ARR with the HERC before fixing electricity tariff for various categories of consumers.

The HERC allows their returns only after hearing objections from consumers. This time, besides Sampat Singh, nearly six industrial associations and residents’ welfare associations have filed their objections before the HERC.

Sampat Singh has questioned the returns on the plea that the Discoms had not submitted the consumer category cost with their returns. The intra-state transmission losses proposed in the ARRs stood at 2.72 per cent against the benchmark 2.1 per cent, he said.

The Congress MLA said the Discoms had proposed heavy distribution losses (DHBVN 23 per cent and UHBVN 22 per cent), which, he alleged, was undue burden on consumers. Sampat Singh has also objected to the Discoms’ claim of 14 per cent return on equity (ROE). He said claiming 454.40 crore as ROE despite complete erosion of their equity and net worth, the Discoms wanted to put this extra burden on consumers.

The Congress MLA has also pointed towards an ‘extremely lax working capital management’, the claim of depreciation to the tune of Rs 300.58 crore, proposed borrowing of Rs 209.63 crore against government subsidy, wrong computation of subsidy by showing an exaggerated number of hours for running of tubewells than the actual power supply given to farmers. All this, he said, would have a cumulative effect on raising power tariff and putting extra burden on consumers. 

Sirsa, February 3
The case of kidnapping and extortion of a former sarpanch of Nepalpur Khuian village, Suraj Bhan Gandhi, allegedly by two women and some others, has much more than what the police has actually made out to be.

Much before Gandhi lodged his FIR with the police on January 30, Manjit Kaur, a resident of Lohgarh village, one of the two women arrested by the police in this case, had lodged a complaint of rape against him on January 9.

In his FIR lodged with the police on January 30, Gandhi had alleged that he was called by the accused near the PWD Rest House on the pretext of purchasing his property on December 25, 2011. He was kidnapped from there on gunpoint and forced to drive his car towards Sardulgarh.

He had alleged that his kidnappers beat him up, prepared his obscene CD with the woman and extorted Rs 1.50 lakh from him.

Gandhi lodged his FIR on January 30, more than a month after the incident or kidnapping and extortion, which according to him was on December 25.

The police arrested Manjit Kaur, a resident of Lohgarh and another Manjit Kaur from Khairpur in Sirsa and has recovered some cash and a gold kara taken away by them from Gandhi.

The woman alleged while talking to mediapersons outside the court that after she gave her complaint in the city police station, the police frustrated her attempt though she visited the police station several times and refused to entertain it.

She alleged that even without getting her medically examined, the police forced her to withdraw her complaint.

Gandhi himself was not available for comments, but his brother, Ruli Chand Gandhi, who has joint business with Suraj Bhan Gandhi, maintained that though the woman had lodged a complaint, she had withdrawn her complaint on her own.

While admitting that the woman had first given her complaint to the city police station, the SP, Devender Yadav, maintained that she withdrew her complaint later.

The police maintained that she had reached a compromise with Gandhi and hence did not want to pursue her complaint. According to sources, the woman had told the police during her interrogation that she herself was a victim and was being blackmailed by the other Manjit Kaur and her accomplices and she was forced to sleep with several men.

The sources said she had revealed the names of five more reputed traders of the town, who had been made to pay extortion money to the gang by making their obscene CDs. 

Fatehabad, February 3
A team of Drugs Control Department, Haryana, today recovered huge quantities of intoxicant drugs from the house of a medical store owner at Ratia town in Fatehabad.

A team comprising Senior Drugs Control Officer, Hisar, Adarsh Goyal, and District Drugs Control Officer, Fatehabad, Rajnish Dhaliwal, who were on routine inspections in Ratia today, raided the house of a chemist in Ward 6 of the town.

“Huge quantities of intoxicants, including cough syrups used for a kick have been recovered from the house,” Goyal informed The Tribune after the raid.

He said the drugs seized from the house include 1 lakh tablets of Alprazolam, 3 lakh tablets of Diphenoxylate with Atropine, 25,000 tablets of Tramadol, 18,000 tablets of Carsole, 10,000 tablets of Carisoma, 7,000 capsules of Parvon Spas, 4,000 capsules of Spasmo Proxyvon and 100 bottles of cough syrup containing codeine, a derivative of opium.

He said the house owner was guilty of violations of section 18-B and 18-C of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act (non-disclosure of source of purchase of drugs and unauthorised stock and sale of drugs).

Besides proceeding against the house owner, Makhan Lal, under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, they will also lodge an FIR against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act with the police.

Goyal said the drugs seized from the house had been sealed and they were in the process of sealing the shop. 

Hisar, February 3
Of the 26 such buses checked by the Motor Vehicles Inspector here yesterday, only six were declared fit for transporting school students.

In many cases the buses were found to have more seats fitted than prescribed. Several buses did not have emergency doors while some were without grilles on windows.

The school managements have been told to bring the vehicles for inspection after removing all discrepancies.

Meanwhile, auto-rickshaw operators have raised monthly charges for transporting school students by 50 per cent. This follows a directive issued by the administration against overloading.

They were earlier charging Rs 600 to 700 per child per month. The fare has now been raised to Rs 1000. The operators justify the raise, saying that they were carrying fewer children now while the operating costs had gone up.