Panipat, February 7
With the shutting down of six thermal units in four thermal power plants, the power crisis has aggravated, leading to unscheduled cuts ranging between three and eight hours daily.

Sources said two 210-MW and 110-MW units at the Panipat thermal power station, one 600-MW unit at Khedar, two 300-MW units at Yamunanagar and one newly commissioned 600-MW unit at Jhajjar thermal power plant were not contributing any power to the state’s kitty which had resulted in a shortage of 428 lakh units every day.

The unit number 6 (210 MW) of the Panipat thermal went down early this morning while unit number 2 (110 MW) was reported to be already under maintenance. This brought down power availability from Panipat power station to 840 MW against 1040 MW on Monday.

Two units of 300-MW each at the Yamunanagar thermal plant have also not been operating for the past several days. The turbine rotor of one unit has been sent to China for repair and it will take another four to six months to restart the unit, sources said. The second unit also went down due to boiler leakage.

One 600-MW unit at Khedar had developed leakage problems while another unit was daily generating 500 MW on an average.

The 660-MW unit at Jhajjar after its commissioning last month within a record three years, has not generated even a single unit of power due to non-availability of coal the supply of which has not yet commenced there.

Raman Mohan adds from Hisar: The first unit of the Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Plant at Khedar village, near here, has been shut down for repairs necessitating further power cuts in the area.

Official sources said the turbine and the boiler of the unit had developed snags prompting its shutdown on Monday evening. A team of engineers from a Chinese company had been summoned to rectify the faults.

The second unit was,, however, producing 500 MW of power. The sources said it would take several days to rectify the defects.

The plant has been beset with technical snags ever since its commissioning. Initially, there were problems in achieving the peak generation capacity. Since then the two units had to be shut down several times because of faults.

Dabri (Karnal): The government will spend Rs 3,803 crore in the next three years to strengthen the power transmission network, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said here on Tuesday. Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating a 132 kV substation here, he said the capacity of 102 existing substations would be augmented and 3,630-km new transmission lines erected to ensure uninterrupted power supply. It had been decided to set up five 400-kV, 24 220-kV, 22 132-kV, 23 66-kV and 104 new 33-kV substations to meet the growing load requirement while two new units of 500-MW each at Indira Gandhi Thermal Power Station, Jharli’ and two units of 660-MW each at Mahatma Gandhi Super Thermal Power Station, Jhajjar, would be commissioned during the current year adding about 2,200 MW of power daily to the state’s kitty. — TNS

Chandigarh, February 7
Criminals continued to outsmart the Haryana police in 2011 with the investigating agencies failing to crack over 20 per cent of the murder cases and 10 per cent of the kidnapping cases. Despite claims to the contrary, there was hardly any improvement in the success rate of the Haryana police in working out the cases last year as compared to 2010.

Data collected by The Tribune revealed that the police could work out only 847 cases of murder as against 1,061 murder cases last year with a success rate of about 80 per cent. In 2,010, the success rate was almost similar with the police cracking 801 of 1,003 murders committed in the state.

As far as kidnapping cases are concerned, the police’s record was slightly better with 881 of the 960 (around 90 per cent) cases being worked out. In 2010, the police was able to zero in on criminals in 870 out of the 956 kidnapping cases.

However, in rape cases, the success rate of the police was far better -- almost 97 per cent (708 out of 723 cases). In 2010, the police had worked out 706 of the 713 rape cases (also around 97 per cent).

Official sources said staff shortage coupled with investigating techniques that had failed to keep pace with the times had contributed to the success rate being not very impressive. This coupled with adoption of modern techniques to commit crime and Haryana’s porous border with several states provided criminals enough time to escape to other states after commiting heinous crimes, the sources asserted.

However, terming the success rate of working out cases in 2,011 as “fairly impressive”, a senior police functionary claimed that some of the “blind” cases, particularly involving inter-state gangs, take several months or years to be worked out.” We should not ignore the fact that the Haryana Police busted nearly 300 inter-state gangs last year besides solving thousands of the cases, he added.

The heinous crime graph soared in Haryana last year with three murders, an equal number of kidnappings, two rapes, two dacoities and robberies and almost one dowry death being reported daily.

Gurgaon, February 7
Every village in Gurgaon district will have a “health wall” on which the sex ratio, number of expecting mothers, immunization status and the healthcare facilities available in that village will be displayed.

This was resolved at a district-level convention of panchayat members organised here yesterday. Members of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) of all 210 villages in the district participated. Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena presided over the convention and heard the grievances of the PRI members. Meena also apprised the PRI members about the steps taken by the state government and the district administration for improving the sex ratio.

He pointed out that the Gurgaon district administration had recently enhanced the prize money given to informers of pre-natal sex determination from Rs 21,000 to Rs 51,000. He appealed to people to come forward in curbing the menace of female foeticide. At the same time, he emphasised on sending all children, especially the girls, to school. The DC informed that three mega camps would be organised for the clearance of pending mutation cases in the district. The first camp would be organised for the Farrukhnagar and Manesar tehsil areas on February 12 while camps at Sohna and Gurgaon would be organised on February 19. The mega mutation camp at Pataudi would be organised on February 26.

Meena asked villagers, especially the sarpanches, to protect the panchayat land and plead the cases pertaining to panchayat land going on in various courts of law. He also asked them to keep a watch on the quality of development works undertaken by various departments in their village.

Chandigarh, February 7
There is finally another platform for the people to air their grievances and seek redressal. From being a mere forwarding agency of complaints of ration cards and BPL cases for years, the Petition Committee of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, in this term, seems to have have “discovered” its teeth.

That’s probably why a liquor vend in Gandhi Camp, Rohtak, will be moved out from its present location near a temple in the next financial year, much to the relief of the local residents. The people of the area had represented for the closure of the vend to the seven-member Petition Committee headed by MLA BB Batra.

The committee heard the grievance of the residents as also the officials of the Excise Department and decided that the liquor vend would be shifted from its present location from the next financial year.

Similarly, the committee, probably for the first time, is summoning officers of departments concerned on grievances it receives from time to time. One big decision the committee made was on a representation by BJP MLA Anil Vij who said that the officers were not bothering to respond to his various queries on projects despite government orders to this effect.

The committee not only summoned the then Ambala Deputy Commissioner but also directed him to provide the information sought by the MLA. Later, this “verdict” was forwarded to the Chief Secretary’s office for circulation to the rest.

Sources said the committee which, earlier, would get only complaints of people seeking BPL status or wanting ration cards made, has received 30 complaints of which eight have already been settled while 10 others have been sent to the departments concerned for their replies.

“We refer the complaints to the officers concerned and seek their replies. We have even called Financial Commissioner-rank officers and other officers to get their point of view and record evidence before giving any directions. This is probably happening for the first time. The committee is an important tool with the public to redress their grievances which are not in the court of law. We have tried to kick-start the committee by actively involving ourselves, hearing complaints and deciding matters,” explains Batra.

Among the many complaints the committee has received are representations of land compensation which has been elusive in Beri, non-payment of medical claims, water problems, delay in allotment of the 100 sq yard plots, compensation for a house gutted in a fire in Panipat among others.

The committee has been meeting regularly every week since it was constituted nearly a year ago and has held nearly 60 meetings at which the complaint and the departmental officers have been heard.

Karnal, February 7
The Haryana Government is making serious efforts to ensure that there was no backlog of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes in government jobs and the pace of filling the reserved category posts was faster as compared to other states, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today said.

Speaking on the 635th birth anniversary of Guru Ravidass, Hooda claimed that the backlog of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes was being cleared by expediting the process of filling of vacant posts.

Utilising the occasion to pat the government on the Food Security Act, the Chief Minister said it was the fulfilment of Guru Ravidass’ dream who always said through his verses that his dream was for the creation of a society where everyone got food.

Describing the Congress and poor people as “synonyms”, Hooda said whenever the Congress remained out of power, maximum atrocities were committed against the poor people.

Without naming any party, he said some parties came to power in UP by making a false propaganda to ensure the welfare of the poor but had no policies for the welfare of people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes in the state.

Referring to the benefits being given to the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes in Haryana, Hooda said Haryana was not only the first state in the country but also in the world, where scholarships were given to students belonging to these classes from Class I.

Listing the schemes and programmes being implemented for the welfare of the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Backward Classes, the Chief Minister said the budget allocation for the welfare of these sections had been increased from Rs 79 crore in 2005 to Rs 357.42 crore in 2011-12.

The government is providing scholarships to the tune of Rs 500 crore per year to 16.70 lakh students belonging to the Scheduled Castes and 100 sq metre plots were being allotted to the SCs.

Bhiwani, February 7
The Haryana Janhit Congress president and MP, Kuldip Bishnoi, said the people of the state were dismayed with the present Congress government. They were feeling dejected due to the “discriminatory” attitude of the government in terms of insufficient supply of electricity, water and inadequate employment.

“People are feeling themselves cheated as they are not getting better infrastructural facilities like roads, electricity, transport, etc,” said Bishnoi while addressing thanksgiving public meetings at Paposa, Buwani Khera, Jatu-Luhari, Siwara, Kungar, Bhaini, Khedi Daulatpur, Siwana and Alakhpura villages of the Buwani Khera Assembly area today.

During his one-day tour, he participated in the Bhagwan Ravi Dass Jayanti function at Paposa village as chief guest.

Bishnoi said the results of three byelections in the state proved that the people wanted change and they wanted to uproot the corrupt government. Stating that the people had discarded Om Prakash Chautala and his sons, he said Ajay Chautala could win only a single election out of five he contested for Parliament.

Bishnoi asserted all five MLAs, who defected to the Congress in 2009, would have to go as their case in the court was weak.

He further alleged that the state was being pushed to backwardness for the past 15 years and demanded from the Central Government a “special package” for adequate development of every area of the state.

Chandigarh, February 7
Moving the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a land acquisition matter after the dismissal of an earlier petition and an appeal by the Supreme Court has cost Bambinoo Foods Industries dear.

Dubbing the action as “gross abuse of process of law”, a Division Bench has imposed a cost of Rs 10,000 on the industry.

In its petition placed before the Bench of Justice Hemant Gupta and Justice AN Jindal, Bambinoo Foods Industries had challenged notifications dated February 19, 2007, and October 31, 2007, under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894.

The Bench observed that the petitioner had earlier also filed a writ petition before the Court. Dismissing the petition vide order dated March 3, 2010, the high court recorded that possession of the land belonging to the petitioner was taken on February 11, 2009. “The petitioner filed a special leave petition before the Supreme Court, which was dismissed on September 13, 2010?. Subsequently, the review filed by the petitioner was also dismissed by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2011.

“The petitioner has filed the present writ petition after the dismissal of its earlier writ petition by the Division Bench of this Court and of the special leave petition by the Supreme Court for the reasons that in another set of writ petitions decided on September 9, 2011, the Division Bench of this Court had set aside the acquisition.

“A perusal of the record shows that the aforesaid writ petitions were filed on February 7, 2009, that is prior to the announcement of the award on February 11, 2009?.

“We find that the invocation of the jurisdiction of this court after the dismissal of the earlier writ petition and also the appeal by the Supreme Court, is nothing but a gross abuse of process of law. Consequently, we dismiss the present petition with costs of Rs 10,000. The amount of costs be deposited with the High Court Legal Services Committee within a month.

Rohtak, February 7
In a daring incident, three armed youths looted gold and cash worth several lakhs at gunpoint from a jewellery shop this morning. A case has been registered but the police is clueless about the culprits.

“Three youths who had covered their faces with cloths entered my shop as soon as I had opened the shutter around 7 am this morning. They took out a revolver and asked me to hand over the cash and gold ornaments,” said Om Prakash Gupta, the owner of Gupta Jewellers, located near Railway Road here.

The culprits, who had parked their motorcycle around 50 metres away from the shop, walked away with the loot within 20 minutes after locking up Gupta inside a room in the shop. The loot includes over 2 kg of gold ornaments and Rs 5 lakh in cash, according to the complaint lodged with the police.

The robbers kept threatening the owner and warned to shoot him if he failed to oblige them and raised an alarm. They locked him up in one of the rooms in the shop before walking away without being noticed. The culprits had come on a motorcycle with a temporary registration number but it could not be noted down, said the police.

“I had received the cash last night from a party and was still to deposit in the bank,” Gupta said. The shop had no CCTV cameras, said Gupta.

Faridabad, February 7
The police has booked five persons charged with gang-raping a woman several times by using intimidation to have their way with her.

Rani (23) (name changed) complained to the police that Keshu befriended her while she was residing alone after being deserted by her husband six months after her marriage. He had a physical relationship with her several times on promise that he would marry her.

Rani, working at a rubber factor here, further alleged that her paramour once took her to the nearby Palli hills where he along with his friends, Gulab, Shakeer, Sanjay and Chinda, gang-raped her. They threatened to liquidate her if she did not play ball with them.

The victim complained to the police that the accused continue to intimidate and exploit her sexually.

They are said to be employed as drivers by a retired police personnel.

Narender Singh, the SHO concerned, said the matter was being investigated. No arrest has been made yet.

Chandigarh, February 7
A Haryana Congress leader has urged Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to direct the power distribution companies not to recover additional consumption security from domestic and non-domestic consumers.

In a statement issued here today former spokesman of the Haryana Congress Ved Prakash Vidrohi said the decision of the power utilities to recover additional consumption security from the consumers would amount to penalising honest consumers and encouraging the defaulters.

Vidrohi said after the Hooda government waived electricity dues of about Rs 1600 crore in 2005, the total arrears had gone up to Rs 3200 crore. The need, he said, was to devise a mechanism to stop power theft and to recover arrears from non-paying consumers and not the recovery of additional security linked with consumption of electricity.

He said if the government did not show the seriousness in recovering arrears from non-paying consumers and to stop power theft soon, the power utilities would go bankrupt.

Sirsa, February 7
The INLD has accused Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of betraying Haryana’s interests on the SYL issue by campaigning for Capt Amarinder Singh, under whose regime the Punjab State Assembly had passed a resolution on this matter in 2004.

INLD secretary-general Ajay Singh Chautala said Hooda had been accusing them (Chautalas) of working against the interests of the state by campaigning for the SAD (Badal), but what answer did he (Hooda) have for supporting the Congress in Punjab.

Chautala alleged that during his two-day sojourn in Sirsa recently, Hooda misled people by claiming that Rs 2472.94 crore had been spent on development activities in Sirsa during his six-year regime.

The INLD leader claimed that none of the works announced by Hooda at a rally held here last year had so far materialised.

Chautala ridiculed Hooda’s claims of investing much on the development of Chaudhary Devi Lal University in Sirsa and maintained that whatever had been done for this university was done during Chautala’s regime.