Chandigarh, February 13
Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HSIIDC) has extended the one-time voluntary disclosure and amnesty scheme for regularisation of old cases up to March 31 .

An official spokesman said that the scheme was introduced for old allottees who had violated certain terms and conditions of allotment. These violators were not coming forward for regularisation of violations fearing high penalty and compounding charges. Such instances were more in Udyog Vihar, Gurgaon, IMT Manesar, Bawal, Kundli and Faridabad.

Under the scheme, the cases decided in the past would not be reconsidered or re-opened and the scheme would have only a prospective effect limited for the prescribed period. All cases of unauthorised transfer of plots on which industrial units have been established and have been running for one year or more would be considered for regularisation on payment of a transfer fee at the current rate along with 11 per cent interest per annum from the date of agreement to sell till the date of payment without any compounding fee or penalty in the case of single transfers. Sale or conveyance deeds would be executed at the cost of the transferee.

In the case of multiple transfers, the cases would be considered for regularisation by charging the applicable transfer fee twice along with 11 per cent interest per annum from the date of agreement to sell till the date of payment in respect of the final or last transfer, he added.

He said all cases of unauthorised leasing would be considered for regularisation on payment of the normal leasing fee prevailing at the time of grant of lease along with 11 per cent interest per annum from the date of lease agreement till the date of payment, provided the premises was leased out for a permissible activity.

Non-compoundable zoning violations, if any, would not be considered for regularisation under any circumstances and such violations would have to be rectified, he added. The spokesman said that the allottees or applicants would be required to submit a certificate from a registered architect empanelled with the HSIIDC certifying that no violations exist in respect of the zoning and building byelaws.

New Delhi, February 13
The Supreme Court today sought dismissed IPS officer Ravi Kant Sharma’s response to a Delhi Police appeal against his acquittal by the Delhi High Court in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case.

A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Desai issued a notice after Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Harin Raval, arguing for the Delhi Police, contended that the high court had ignored the details of telephone calls between Sharma and co-accused, Shri Bhagwan Sharma, the day Shivani was murdered at her flat on January 23, 1999, and on other occasions. Shri Bhagwan also had a telephonic conversation with RK Sharma’s daughter.

At one stage, the SC Bench gave an impression that it was not inclined to entertain the appeal by stating that the HC has torn to pieces, and rightly so, the Delhi Police’s evidence on the phone calls. The ASG, however, convinced the court subsequently, contending that the HC did not explain the reason for rejecting eight independent pieces of credible evidences on the basis of phone calls.

The Bench, however, refused to accept the ASG’s plea for admitting the appeal straightaway for detailed hearing by granting leave, a legal expression for admission. The HC had acquitted Sharma and two others on October 12, 2011, observing that the police had failed to prove that the accused persons were part of a conspiracy to kill the journalist. There were several missing links in the records of telephone calls made between the accused persons, the HC had held.

Sharma and two of his co-accused, Shri Bhagwan Sharma and Satya Prakash, get the benefit of doubt and they stand acquitted of all charges, the HC had held. The HC had, however, upheld the life sentence awarded to Pradeep Sharma who had killed Shivani.

According to the police, Pradeep Sharma, accompanied by Satya Prakash, had gone to the house of Shivani and stabbed her to death. RK Sharma allegedly had an affair with Shivani, but decided to eliminate her after she told him to either marry her or stand exposed.

At the time of the murder, RK Sharma was posted in Mumbai as Director (Vigilance), Air India. He has also been Inspector General (Prisons) in Haryana. He came into contact with Shivani when he was working as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Prime Minister’s Office from July 2, 1997 to April 23, 1998.

Chandigarh, February 13
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today stayed the alleged illegal conversion of industrial land for commercial use in area falling under the Faridabad MC. The directions came in the ongoing public interest litigation filed by social activist from Faridabad Krishan Lal Gera.

The petitioner is seeking directions for a probe by an independent agency into the functioning of the Faridabad Municipal Corporation.

Among other things, the petitioner is seeking inquiry into the corporation’s failure to remove or demolish unauthorised construction of residential houses and shops that continue to exist in the new industrial township.

The petitioner is insisting that the authorities are regularising the violations by charging some fees instead of taking action against the violators of the zonal plan.

Accusing the local authorities of turning a blind eye to large-scale violation of land use, the petitioner has also sought directions for registration of cases against those converting residential plots into industrial units, in violation of the zoning plan. The case will now come up for hearing on April 28.

Chandigarh, February 13
Most of Haryana’s MPs don’t have much to write home about when it comes to spending their grants under the MP Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) as utilisation of the amount released to them is just over 50 per cent.

Barring Bhiwani-Mahendergarh MP Shruti Choudhry and Faridabad MP Avtar Singh Badhana, who have a percentage utilisation of 94.15 per cent and 71.38 per cent, respectively, it varies between 58 per cent and 32 per cent for the other eight MPs, seven of them from the Congress.

The information available on the official MPLADS website shows that Union Minister Selja has the lowest utilisation percentage of 32.15 per cent. Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar is a close second with 36.31 per cent, Gurgaon MP Indrajit Singh has 38.31 per cent while Deepender Hooda is only a shade better with a percentage of 39.38 per cent.

Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal has a utilisation percentage of 48.44 per cent. Sonepat’s Jitender Malik’s percentage at 58.15 per cent is much higher than other senior MPs while recently elected Hisar MP Kuldeep Bishnoi has a utilisation of 35.69 per cent.

However, the MPs maintain that the real assessment of utilisation of the MPLADS funds cannot be arrived at from the available statistics for the simple reason that they have already sanctioned works for a lot more than what have been executed.

“I am very particular about the spending of MPLADS funds and have already made recommendations for projects worth Rs 10. 09 crore though we have a fund availability of only Rs 6.63 crore. What is pushing down the percentage is the fact that the grant is released only after a junior engineer approves the cost estimates for the project. This is a recent clause that has been introduced and, is, unfortunately, delaying development works,” Rao Indrajeet Singh said.

Of the Rs 9.17 crore available, Jindal has already recommended projects worth Rs 8.62 crore though the expenditure incurred so far is pegged at Rs Rs 4.36 crore. Though I have recommended a lot more projects, the utilisation seems low because everything is not getting reflected,” Jindal emphasises.

Meanwhile, HJC MP Kuldeep Bishnoi, the lone opposition MP, is sore over the way the recommendations are handled. He has already made recommendations for projects to the tune of Rs 25 crore. “Somehow, the district administration seems to keep sitting on estimates while at other times they delay the no-objection certificates. I think this is a deliberate attempt on the part of the administration to hold back development in my constituency. We have raised these concerns at meetings and the government should address this,” said Bishnoi.

Hisar, February 13
Over 90 per cent of the youths who participated in an Army recruitment rally on the opening day here yesterday failed to meet the physical standards prescribed for recruitment.

This has cast serious doubts on the health of rural youth in Haryana, which prided itself on the slogan ‘Haryana - jahan doodh, dahi ka khana.’

Most of the participants failed to complete the 1600- metre race in time to qualify for further physical tests. Still others failed to qualify the long jump.

Dozens of youth were disqualified because they had tattoos on their bodies. The Army had recently directed that youths with tattoos would not be considered for recruitment to any of its branches. Army officials said the rally would continue till February 21.

Yesterday youths from Jind district had been invited for recruitment as clerks and storekeeper(technical).Youths from other nearby districts will participate in the rally on the remaining days. Senior officers overseeing the recruitment said the 400-odd youth who qualified in the physical tests would now have to take a written test. — TNS

Jind, February 13
The Association of the State Teachers Eligibility Test (STET) candidates of Haryana has opposed the reported move of the state government to continue with the service of the guest teachers in the government schools.

Describing the present policy of the state government towards the STET-qualified candidates as “unjustified”, the body has said that it will launch an agitation from February 17 onwards.

Stating this, a spokesperson of the association said here today that while over 60,000 candidates who had cleared STET had been waiting for appointment, the authorities concerned on the other hand had been playing a kind of double game by retaining the services of guest teachers in an illegal manner. “This policy had resulted in blocking the employment chances of a large number of eligible candidates according to the norms set by the government.”

He said the appointment of guest teachers had been on a temporary basis and their services could not be continued when there was no shortage of eligible candidates.

Describing the recent move of the state government to withdraw its petition challenging the appointment or continuation of the services of guest teachers as “wrong”, he said the authorities concerned may want to regularise the services of guest teachers, frustrating the aspirations of the STET qualified candidates due to vested interests.

To protest against the “high-handedness” of the authorities, the association will be staging demonstrations throughout the state. To begin with, a memorandum will be submitted to the MLAs and MPs between February 17 and 20. A two-day protest will be held outside the Education Directorate at Panchkula on February 25 and 26 to highlight the grievance and the alleged irregularities on the issue. A fast unto death will be started from March 25 if the state government does not accept their demand of relieving the guest teachers and appointment of STET- qualified candidates in their place.

Karnal, February 13
A girl Kiran (21) was allegedly hanged by her in-laws in Kutel village yesterday. The parents of the deceased alleged that their daughter had been hanged by her in-laws, who were constantly torturing her for not bringing enough dowry.

The father of the deceased said while Kiran was talking to her mother on phone yesterday, her husband snatched the phone from her and started beating her. When they reached Kutel, they saw marks of hanging on the body of Kiran.

The police has booked Sanjay (husband), Guddi (mother-in-law), Ram Kumar (father-in-law), Balkar Singh (brother-in-law), Suman (sister-in-law) and two others under Section 304 B and 34, IPC.

Hisar, February 13
A head constable has been suspended on charges of collecting Rs 20 lakh from policemen for payment of electricity bills but not depositing the amount with the DHBVN.

The embezzlement came to light four years after the amount was collected when the nigam directed the police to deposit the pending bills.

Ashvin Shenvi, SP, ordered a probe which revealed that head constable Rajan collected the money from 600 policemen residing in the Police Lines here but did not deposit it with the nigam or the department.

The nigam supplies power to the Police Lines in bulk. As such there is only one meter installed to record consumption. The consumption by individual houses is determined on the basis of reading in sub-meters installed in each house. The head constable had been assigned the duty of collecting the bill amount from each house. — TNS

Rohtak, February 13
As many as 32 chemist shops were sealed in the drive launched by the state Drug Control Department recently. Stating this, the State Drug Controller-cum-Joint Commissioner, Dr GL Singhal claimed that a large number of chemists had not been following the norms and had allegedly been helping the drug mafia. He said strict action would be taken to implement the rules regarding the sale of drugs and intoxicants.

Claiming that almost 30 per cent of the milk samples and 12 per cent samples of other foodstuffs had failed during the recent tests in the state, he said today that a case case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act had been registered against two persons at Dabwali recently. The department had also sealed several shops of chemists in Bahadurgarh, Sonepat, Hisar, Dabwali and Kurukshetra besides cancelling the licences of 12 chemists. He said a warning had been served to the milk and milk products dealers.

Faridabad, February 13
Two unidentified youths snatched a service pistol from a policeman on duty and escaped last night on Surajkund road near here.

The two were spotted in a car in suspicious circumstances by two policemen on patrol duty on the Surajkund road. The car was parked outside Sunrise Apartments. When asked to open the door of the car, the youths refused to obey.

Chaman Lal, ASI, said when the youths refused to fall in line, he smashed the window pane of the car on the driver’s side with his service pistol. He held the weapon to the neck of the youth sitting in the driver’s seat in an effort to nab them. Taken aback at the police action, the youths started the car.

The ASI said he lost his balance when the car picked up speed. One of the two youths snatched the pistol from his hand which was in the car.

The youths fled towards Faridabad city.

Just then a PCR van with three personnel arrived on the scene. The youths were chased by the team but it lost track of the car near Ankhir crossing, 5 km from Sunrise Apartments.

Chaman Lal, on whose complaint an FIR was registered, said the team could not note down the number of the car due to darkness.

Sirsa, February 13
For 35 years, he duped the police force by impersonating his brother and working as a constable in his place. The bluff came to the fore only after his death.

The police said here today that Ratan Lal had joined the Haryana Police in Sirsa in 1977 by impersonating as his brother Babu Ram, who had cleared the recruitment tests.

This he probably did as Babu Ram had the educational qualifications to become a constable at that time which he lacked.

Lal kept on working for the Haryana Police as a constable, acting against criminals. During his long service years, he served at various places in Haryana and on deputation with the Chandigarh Police too.

In November, Lal consumed some poisonous substance while he was in his village in Yamunanagar. He was admitted to the Civil Hospital at Yamunanagar from where he was referred to the PGI, Chandigarh. He died on the way.

He would have never been exposed had his family members not given his real name, Ratan Lal, in the hospital papers.

Investigations revealed that the real Babu Ram was alive and it was Ratan Lal who had been working in the force who had died.

Babu Ram is currently staying in Yamunanagar, the police said. — PTI