Chandigarh, February 10
Fiscal prudence will be the key focus for the Congress government in Haryana
as it gets ready to present its budget proposals for 2012-13 during the upcoming budget session. With the state incurring debt, thanks to its burgeoning salary and pension bill, and the widening revenue and fiscal deficit, residents cannot expect any relaxation in taxes.

Till four years ago (2007-08), Haryana was one of the few revenue surplus states in the country. But the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and the sops announced by the Congress government in the last leg of its first tenure (during 2005-09) have not only eroded the state’s buoyant revenue collections, but also increased the debt burden on Haryana manifold. The total debt burden on the state by the end of this financial year is expected to cross Rs 50,000 crore with Rs 6,000 crore of debt incurred during the current financial year alone.

Highly placed sources in the state Finance Department informed The Tribune that for the next financial year (2012-13), Haryana is likely to present a Budget with estimated budgetary expenditure of over Rs 44,000 crore. The total planned expenditure of the budget 2012-13 is expected to be around Rs 24,000 crore, up by 15 per cent from the planned expenditure for this fiscal. Though the Planning Commission is yet to approve the annual plan, it is estimated at over Rs 24,000 crore (including the plan outlay of centrally sponsored schemes) for the coming financial year. The focus will be on agriculture, with some allocation for agriculture research, and the development of infrastructure in the national capital region.

Though the government is yet to take a decision on imposing any fresh taxes, sources say that in all likelihood, the main focus will be on better tax realisation to increase the revenue receipts, rather than imposition of fresh taxes. The Budget will also aim at bringing down the administrative expenditure as was the case in the current year when the government has tried to curtail this expenditure by 10 per cent.

Official sources also informed The Tribune that during the current fiscal, Haryana is on target to repay its debt of Rs 6,600 crore, besides an interest repayment of over Rs 4,300 crore. “We are also hopeful that the revenue deficit will be brought down by over Rs 1,700 crore over the last financial year (2010-11), and the fiscal deficit to be brought down by Rs 700 crore,” he said. 

Chandigarh, February 10
With the Registrar Cooperative Societies (RCS) indicting them for causing a financial loss of about Rs 3.35 crore to the state exchequer by allegedly favouring a private company, two officials of the Cooperative Department are in the dock.

Gurpreet Kaur and Rajiv Mathur, General Manager and Project Officer, of the Panchkula District Central Cooperative Bank Limited, have been accused of “misleading and concealing the facts and not presenting the factual position before the Board of Directors” regarding the one-time settlement scheme for M/s Anil Pesticides Limited.

An order of the RCS said the actual position of the company on cuf-off date of the one-time settlement scheme was intentionally and wrongly calculated as March 31, 2004, which caused a huge loss to the bank. “The Project Officer and General Manager concealed the facts which resulted in the bank determining the non-productive assets (NPAs) of the company as on December 31,1998, instead of March 31, 2004,” the order said.

Alleging violation of NABARD rules for one-time settlement, the order rued that company’s proposal was “separately dealt, separately considered and separate rules applied by presenting a separate agenda.” “The assessment had been made on the basis of the book value whereas the market value at the time of settlement may be higher,” the order asserted.

The order asked the Board of Directors of the bank to immediately take action against the guilty officials and initiate recovery proceedings.

Chandigarh, February 10
Golf Villas by the DLF have come under the Punjab and Haryana High Court scanner.

A Division Bench yesterday issued notice of motion for April 19 to the State of Haryana, DLF Limited, Gurgaon, and other respondents on a public interest litigation in a land acquisition matter.

In the PIL, Om Prakash of Wazirabad village in Gurgaon district alleged that the land belonging to the gram panchayat was acquired under the garb of “public purpose”. It was then sold to the real estate company, DLF.

Om Prakash has sought directions to the State to revert the ownership and possession of land acquired to the gram panchayat, Wazirabad.

He stated, “It was on August 19, 2009, that a news item appeared that DLF is set to bag a mega land deal as it had emerged the sole bidder for 350.715 acres of prime land in Gurgaon close to South Delhi for development and re-creation and a leisure project namely Magnolias which will include 18-hole golf course.”

He said, “It was informed by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited, Haryana, through its Managing Director that the re-creational/leisure project is being developed by DLF Limited.

“Also, on September 1, 2011, other information supplied showed that a decision was taken by the government to invite international competitive bids for the project.

“It is not a case where DLF has been asked only to develop the project and the DLF will hand over the possession to HSIIDC after developing the recreational/leisure project,” alleged the petitioner.

Fatehabad, February 10
Demanding annulment of the proposed nuclear power project, farmers of Gorakhpur and its surrounding villages, activists of various organisations and local leaders of the HJC and the CPM today held a demonstration in Fatehabad.

The farmers have been opposing the project and have been sitting on a dharna for the last 546 days and recently, they had held three officials of a company, who had visited the village for land surveys, as captives in a dhani. The farmers and the activists opposing the project assembled near the Laal Batti Chowk this morning and marched in a procession to the mini-secretariat.

Soumya Dutta from the South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy (SADED) said the villagers had been opposing the nuclear plant merely for the fear of losing their land, but the issue was much more serious, which the villagers were ignorant about.

He alleged that the Central Government had been misleading people on all aspects of the nuclear plants, including their safety, costs and availability of other sources of energy. He said the country had immense potential of producing solar as well as wind energy, but the resources were not being tapped.

The nuclear projects, he alleged, were fraught with the risks of accidents as well exposure to radiations in normal course. Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, opposing the acquisition of their lands for the project alleged that the state government wanted to snatch their highly fertile land against their will. Siwach said the farmers would die rather than yielding an inch of their land for the project.

Sirsa, February 10
In what is being described as the biggest offensive of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against intoxicants in the state so far, the authorities have unearthed large quantities of drugs in Dabwali town of the district today.

The FDA authorities are putting the cost of these drugs that include the banned oxytocin injections, cough syrups used for a kick by the youths, injectables, tablets and capsules misused for intoxication, at Rs 20 to Rs 25 lakh.

The FDA officials have so far sealed 10 shops, unearthed two unauthorised godowns, recovered nearly two truckloads of drugs and lodged a complaint under the NDPS Act against two persons.

The raids are likely to continue well past midnight, said Dr GL Singal, Joint Commissioner (Drug), FDA, Haryana. Five teams comprising officers of the FDA from its headquarter Panchkula, Karnal, Rohtak, Hisar and some other places descended on Dabwali town in the morning and started their raids separately.

Though the plan was kept a closely guarded secret and even the local officer of the FDA at Sirsa was not informed of the move till the actual raids started, the news somehow leaked and owners of five shops ran away after locking their shops.