Panipat, March 3
A major power crisis is looming in the state as the generation from the state’s own sources has dipped to a new low with power purchase and overdrawing from the northern grid remaining the only two alternatives for the power utilities to meet the demand.

If a report prepared by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) is any indication, the state will be facing an overall power shortage of around 6 per cent during peak hours. The report states that during peak hours, power availability will be around 6,050 MW against a demand of 6,500 MW. The state will have around 33,777 million units against a demand of 35,929 million units.

As of today, the generation from the state’s own resources has been recorded at 986 MW against a total capacity of 3,230 MW. Three thermal units with a capacity of 920 MW are under maintenance whereas the 600-MW unit number 1 at Khedar, 300-MW unit number 2 at Yamunanagar, the 210-MW unit number 5 at Panipat and the 110-MW unit number 4 are under a forced shut down.

The state has been overdrawing from the grid even during these lean periods due to forced outages of units.

During the coming paddy season and the summer, the non-availability of the Yamunanagar unit may pose a serious problem, said a senior official of the Haryana power utilities. The power demand in the state these days is over 1,000 lakh units and it increases by more than 50 per cent during the paddy season, sources said.

At present, Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has a total generating capacity of 4,390.50 MW of thermal and hydel power stations. Besides, the state gets 1,939 MW from central sector projects, including 1,321 MW of a firm share in the central sector projects. Besides, 431 MW from unallocated power is being given to the state.

The state will have a 750-MW share in the 1,500-MW Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power Project at Jhajjar which is being executed by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in a joint venture with Delhi. Besides, Haryana will also have an 85 per cent share in the 1,320- MW Mahatma Gandhi Thermal Power Project, coming up in Jhajjar, which is a tariff-based project being set up by China Light Power Company. Though one of the units here has already been commissioned, it has not yet started adding to the state’s power kitty due to non-availability of coal.

Besides, a 1,500-MW gas-based project at Faridabad and a 660-MW capacity additional super critical thermal unit at Yamunanagar are also in the pipeline along with the 2,800-MW nuclear power plant in Fatehabad district, which has also been approved. But till the time these units start generating, the state will be dependent only on the outside sources. 

Panchkula, March 3
In the cases against Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim, a key witness, Khatta Singh, today admitted and testified his statement, which was recorded under Section 164 of the CrPC in 2007. He admitted his statement in the special CBI court, Panchkula.

CBI special public prosecutor HPS Verma said Khatta Singh had recorded his statement before the judicial magistrate in Chandigarh on June 22, 2007, against the dera chief and today he admitted in the court that he had recorded his statement and even identified his signatures on the statement. Khatta Singh had stated that he was present at the meeting held in the ‘gufa’ wherein the dera chief allegedly ordered five of his confidants to eliminate Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh was murdered on July 10, 2002, by the dera men.

Besides, in the journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati murder case, Khatta Singh had stated that he was present with the dera head when the murder conspiracy of Chhatrapati was hatched and three persons were directed to eliminate Chhatrapti.

Whereas last month Khatta Singh had told the CBI court that he was forced by a DIG-rank officer, who was investigating the case, to confess that the dera chief had ordered the killing of Ranjit Singh.

The dera chief is the main accused in the murder case of dera member Ranjit Singh’s and is also charged by the CBI for the murder of Sirsa journalist Ram Chhatrapati. The dera chief is also accused of sexual harassment of a ‘sadhvi’ in 2002. All the three cases are at the evidence stage in the CBI court in Panchkula.

Chandigarh, March 3
Against the backdrop of the Union Cabinet approving harsher punishments for traffic violations, the Haryana Police is gearing up to implement the new provisions of the amended Motor Vehicle Act. However, staff and equipment shortage may prove to be a dampner for the strict implementation of the traffic rules.

Official sources said while the new stringent traffic laws would prove to be a deterrent for the habitual traffic offenders, drunk drivers and those using mobile phones while driving, a coordinated strategy by civil and police officials would be worked out once the new amendments in the Act were okayed by Parliament in the forthcoming Budget session.

The shortage of latest equipment, including alcometers and radars to check speeding on the highway, is being addressed with the police in the process of procuring the new equipment, the sources asserted.

The use of the state and national highways by motorists particularly Haryana Roadways, whose drivers are notorious for rash driving, is one of the highest in Haryana. It is not difficult to enforce traffic rules on the highways and we are in the process of drawing up a plan to “educate and punish” the erring drivers, a senior police official said.

The police is already in the process of finalising a proposal to send “drunk drivers” behind bars all over the state. Currently, the provision of taking the “drunk drivers” to courts for conviction is being implementated in Gurgaon.

In fact, strict enforcement of the traffic laws had proved to be the Achilles heel of the Haryana Police in the wake of an unusually high number of fatal accidents in the recent past. The “killer roads” in Haryana claimed 4,595 lives — 13 lives daily — and injured 9,320 persons (26 persons per day) in 2011.

Sirsa, March 3
A minor girl, who was missing for the past three months from her Panihari village in Sirsa, has alleged her abduction and rape by four youths of the village.

The victim, a 16-year old schoolgirl, has alleged that Vinod, Daya Ram, Sonu and Rakesh abducted her when she was returning from her school in December last year.

The accused took her to an unknown place in Hisar. She alleged that Vinod raped her repeatedly during the past three months. She escaped from clutches of her abductors on Wednesday after which her parents accompanied her to a police station.

The police said medical examination of the victim had confirmed that she was raped.

The police has registered a case under Sections 366, 342, 376, 506 and 34 of the IPC. The police said Vinod had been arrested and efforts were on to arrest the other accused.

In another case, a schoolteacher molested a student, who used to visit his house for a tuition at Rania town in Sirsa.

The teacher allegedly asked other students to leave and asked the victim to stay back for some notes, when she went to his house on Wednesday evening. He allegedly forcibly administered her some powder, when she raised an alarm.

The police said a case hasdbeen registered and they were investigating the matter. 

Sirsa, March 3
Syed Azeez Pasha, a Rajya Sabha member of the Communist Party of India, today said the Left parties were the only hope for the poor and downtrodden people of this country.

Addressing delegates in the 14th convention of the party underway at Sirsa, Pasha alleged that the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation had made the condition of common people worse during the past some years.

Pasha said the Arjun Sengupta report for National Commission for Public Enterprises in Unorganised Sector, which said that 77 per cent of India’s population lived on less than Rs 20 per day, was a matter of concern for all.

He alleged that the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre had no 
concern for poor people and the government’s only concern was to favour a few corporates.

The Supreme Court had directed the Central Government to distribute among poor the foodgrains rotting in its warehouse, but the government, he said, paid little attention to the apex court’s orders.

The Rajya Sabha MP said there was no possibility of bringing back black money from foreign banks, because the money belonged to those in power.

Almost all political parties in the country had 30 per cent people with a crime record and 50 to 60 per cent those who are crorepatis.

He said in the present scenario, Left parties, particularly the CPI, was the only alternative that the common people were looking up to for mitigation of their grievances.

Meanwhile, addressing mediapersons today, Amarjeet Kaur, national secretary of the CPI, alleged that the manner in which the government was allowing privatisation of education and the health sector, the poor had been left in the lurch.

She said the poor had no place in private universities mushrooming in the name of expansion of educational facilities and five star hotels-like big hospitals coming up in big cities. 

Traveri (Karnal), March 3
An attempt by three motorcycle-borne robbers to loot a local branch of Oriental Bank at Anaj Mandi here was foiled by a guard who confronted the pistol-brandishing culprits and made them flee.

Three persons with masked faces reached the bank on a motorcycle this afternoon and two of them entered the bank and held the cashier, Anuj, and the guard, Gurnaib Singh, at gunpoint, while the third stood outside.

Showing exemplary courage, the guard did not care for his life and tried to overpower the assailants and in the meantime the cashier sounded an alert, forcing the robbers to run away. The loud sound of a hooter made the robbers run and the person standing outside entered the bank but was so nervous that he dropped a country-made pistol and some cartridges inside the bank while fleeing.

The police also came into action and tried to chase the robbers who were still at large. Rakesh Arya, Karnal SP, and other senior officials reached Traveri and started investigations. A CCTV footage was being screened to identify culprits and all accused will be arrested soon, Arya said. The SP announced that a cash award of Rs 5,000 and a letter of appreciation would be given to Gurnaib Singh for showing courage and risking his life to foil the dacoity.

Sirsa, March 3
The National Literacy Mission, a programme for imparting functional literacy to non-literates in the country, has shown encouraging results and women have been the largest beneficiaries of this scheme.

Anshu Vaish, a senior bureaucrat and secretary in the Ministry of Human Resources Development (HRD), said in Haryana where male and female literacy rate was 70 per cent and 49 per cent, respectively, in the 2001 census, an improvement of 8 per cent and 11 per cent has been witnessed, according to the figures of the 2011 census.

She was here in connection with the Saakshar Bharat Yatra that arrived here today. President Pratibha Patil had flagged off the yatra from Delhi on February 18. The authorities had organised a state-level programme in a government school in Nagoki village to create awareness about the Saakshar Bharat Mission, 2012.

Anshu Vaish said the mission had already been started in 372 districts and it would be taken up in 28 more districts very soon. Activists of the Kala Jathas presented cultural programmes, including plays and songs, to create awareness among villagers accompanying the yatra.

Sirsa and Fatehabad are among the 12 districts of Haryana that would be covered under the Saakshar Bharat Mission, 2012.

Palwal, Hisar, Bhiwani, Mohindergarh, Jind, Kaithal, Karnal, Gurgaon, Mewat and Faridabad are the other 10 districts of Haryana included in the mission because of their more than 50 per cent women population being illiterates, as per the 2001 census.

The mission aims to promote and strengthen adult education, especially of women, by extending educational options to those adults who having lost the opportunity of access to formal education and crossed the standard age for receiving such education. The mission is primarily focussing on women, SCs, STs, minorities and other groups in the rural areas.

Rohtak, March 3
A large number of residents of eight villages in Meham subdivision in the district on Thursday staged a demonstration outside a police station at Meham in protest against the alleged irregularities and corruption in the Police Department. The protesters led by Shamsher Singh, sarpanch of Kharkara village, submitted a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda through the officials concerned.

Addressing the gathering, Shamsher Singh alleged that the modus operandi of the Police Department had become a source of harassment and torture for the common man as the police had started exploiting the residents in name of maintaining law and order.

Citing a recent incident, he said, Pawan of Samain village was tortured mercilessly by the police after he failed to give a bribe of Rs 40,000 to settle a case recently. He said this incident had led to a kind of terror among law- abiding citizens.

Faridabad, March 3
The Municipal Corporation Faridabad (MCF) has finally given in to a long-standing demand of thousands of shopkeepers to set up central parking zones in all the markets of the city’s NIT area.

The MCF’s Deputy Town Planner, Ravi Singhla, said a detailed project report on the proposed parking zones was being prepared. A survey had already been conducted through a private agency on traffic density and the sites where the parking zones could be set up.

The NIT consists of five units, each having a sprawling market, which account for more than 10,000 houses and shops.

The Faridabad Vyapaar Mandal was in the forefront of the struggle in favour of central parking spaces in the markets. Jagdish Bhatia, president of the organisation, hoped the MCF authorities would complete the project expeditiously.

Under a new policy of the government, 44 city roads have been declared as commercial. The houses along these roads, which were already being used illegally for commercial purposes, can get the status of land changed through CLU and regularise the commercial establishments. Separate levies have been laid down for them.