Chandigarh, March 12
The Haryana Government has decided to clip the wings of the municipalities regarding approval of the new housing projects in the municipal limits under the town planning schemes.

In a development that will go a long way in the formulation of a uniform policy regarding approval of the housing projects in the state, the state government is set to notify a revised policy. “The matter regarding the fixation of the area norms for the preparation of town planning schemes had been reconsidered and it has been decided that the government would notify a revised policy,” stated a communication from the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Urban Local Bodies Department, to the Commissioners of the Municipal Corporations, Deputy Commissioners and Executive Officers and Secretaries of the municipal councils and committees.

The communication asked the urban local bodies to take up only those cases for approval which were “in the pipeline”. This means the civic body cannot take up new housing projects for approval.

At present, housing projects in the state are approved either by the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) or by the municipality concerned. While the urban planning norms of the DTCP were very strict, those of the municipalities were slightly relaxed. In respect of the town planning schemes, the elected representatives of the municipality concerned rule the roost as they have the final say in the approval of the housing projects. In the majority of cases, the ruling party councillors in the respective municipality have a discretion and they approved the project on other considerations except merit.

Officials claimed that the decision would help the government form a uniform policy for the approval of housing projects all over the state. It would also check the discretionary powers of the councillors, a substantial number of those have interests in the real estate sector, the officials added.

The decision would help the government form a uniform policy on the approval of town planning schemes in the urban areas as currently even different municipalities have different yardsticks for the approval of the projects. Besides, it would curtail the discretionary powers of the municipal councillors, who “misuse” their majority to get certain projects approved at the meetings of urban local bodies.

Hisar, March 12
After six days of dilly-dallying, the pro-reservation Jat protesters today cremated the body of Sandeep, who had been killed in a clash with the police on Tuesday. The body had been placed on the track since Wednesday

The decision to cremate the body was taken by a 21-member committee set up by the protesters this morning. The panel included eight representatives each of the khap panchayats and the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, three representatives of Mayyar village and Sandeep’s father and uncle.

The panel met at the HAU Faculty House for more than an hour. They returned to Ramayan village at 3 p.m.

Senior Jat leader Dharampal Chhot addressed the protesters and declared that the committee had decided to cremate the body. “The mortal remains of a martyr should not be allowed to be placed on the track any longer”, he said.

The Jat agitation began on February 19 after a rally at Mayyar village.

HISAR: Sandeep (20) was a matriculate. He supplemented the family income by working as a casual labourer in the village itself.

His father, Jogi Ram, is employed as an industrial worker with Jindal Stainless, owned by the family of Naveen Jindal, Congress MP from Kurukshetra.

Jogi Ram’s younger son, Krishan (18), who passed Class XI, runs a small shop in the village and sells mobile handsets and recharge coupons. Krishan is also enrolled in a coaching institute, where he is learning to speak English.

Jogi Ram lives in the village with his wife and Krishan. He is living separately from his brothers and cousins.

Contrary to certain media reports, the police says there is no criminal case pending against Sandeep or his father Jogi Ram.

According to villagers, Jogi Ram and his family members are not associated with any political party.

Fatehabad, March 12
Jat agitators today lifted their dharna at the railway track in Mehuwala in Fatehabad district after an agreement was reached with the government in Hisar in the afternoon. Ravinder Godara, a leader of the agitators holding a dharna on the track since March 7, said the Jats had suspended their agitation till September 13 on the assurance of the state government.

Earlier in the morning, Godara, along with Sube Singh Dhaka, another senior leader of the Jat Arakshan Sangharsh Samiti, left for Hisar for talks while others continued to hold fort at the dharna site.

The two arrived at Mehuwala in the evening and told the activists to lift the dharna.

“Train service on the Rewari-Bathinda route will be possible only by noon tomorrow as the railway authorities will first have to inspect the track to rule out any damage,” said Kirpal Singh, stationmaster, Sirsa.

Rail traffic on the Ludhiana-Hisar route was normal throughout the day though Jats continued to sit in the nearby railway track at Gajuwala.

Jawans of the Rapid Action Force had been guarding the tracks ever since the police acted against Jats in an early-morning swoop at Gajuwala on March 6.

Jind, March 12
Haryana Roadways has resumed its services from the local bus depot though some of the routes are still not operational due to the Jat agitation.

Roadways officials said the general bus stand had become functional with the department deciding to resume bus services on some of the routes, including the ones to Rohtak, Kaithal, Karnal, Panipat and Narwana, which had been lying suspended for the past few days. The services to Hisar, Bhiwani, Barwala and Hansi towns would, however, remain suspended till the situation stabilised and the blockades on these roads lifted by the protesters.

Haryana Roadways, which has 150-odd buses in the local depot, stopped services on all routes on March 7 after incidents of violence and blockade of roads by Jat protesters in Hisar, Fatehabad , Bhiwani and Sirsa districts.

The road connecting Hisar with Chandigarh via Narwana had also been blocked disrupting the movement of traffic on various routes for about 24 hours. The local roadways depot has suffered a loss ranging from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 45 lakh during the period.

Rohtak, March 12
The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Rohtak, has a reason to cheer. Its first batch, which is due to graduate soon, has been placed well by the industry with the students getting an average annual package of Rs 12.22 lakh.

The highest package given to a student of this batch is Rs 28.5 lakh. The institute will hold its first convocation on March 17.

A spokesperson of the IIM said the the placement process got an overwhelming response from the industry with 27 companies competing in the process and making 58 offers to a batch of 47 students. He said many students had got domestic offers exceeding Rs 25 lakh per annum.

As the average salary comes to Rs 12.22 lakh per annum, the recruiters appreciated the students for their sound analytical ability, effective communication skills and leadership potential.

The companies that have recruited the students included HSBC, Pfizer, Tata Motors, BPCL, HDFC, Tata Steel, Cognizant, Mother Dairy, YES Bank, Tata Power, Max New York Life Insurance, Berger Paints, RBI, Titan and Ernst and Young among others.

As many as 28 per cent of the students have opted for assignments in the financial sector. Marketing was the preferred choice of 32 per cent of the participants. Roles were offered in brand management, rural marketing, business development, sales and marketing, and B2B marketing.

As many as 40 per cent students secured offers in consulting, operations, IT and general management.

It is claimed that excellent infrastructure coupled with experienced faculty contributed to making an IIM Rohtak a preferred destination for recruiters.

B.Muthuraman, president, CII, and vice-chairman of Tata Steel, will be the chief guest at the convocation function.

Panipat, March 12
The suicide committed by a Railway clerk here today placed the Government Railway Police (GRP) officials in the dock with the deceased having accused the GRP SHO responsible for his death.

Ranjeev (28), who was found hanging from a ceiling fan at his house in the railway colony, left behind a suicide note in which he wrote that he was taking the extreme step after being harassed by the GRP SHO.

His wife, Mona, said of late the GRP, which had been investigating a theft case that had taken place at the local railway station office, had been calling Ranjeev often.

She said her husband had told her that the SHO was accusing him of having committed the theft and was threatening to register a case against him. This, she said, led to her husband’s death.

Meanwhile, the family members placed the body of the deceased on the railway track, which disrupted railway traffic for about an hour. The family has demanded action against the SHO.

The GRP officials said the matter was being investigated.

Sirsa, March 12
Notwithstanding the Central government’s decision to lift the ban on exports, the cotton industry in Haryana is still apprehensive due to the riders attached to the notification issued today.

The notification said no fresh registration for exports would be done and that the registration certificates, which were already issued before the ban, would be scrutinised again and revalidated before the actual exports were allowed.

Also, the exports will have to be completed within a month of issuing the registration certificates. But, additional time will be given to those registration certificates that were valid as on March 5, when the ban was imposed.

“This is not going to help our cause. When the exporters would be busy in revalidation of their registrations already issued by the Director-General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), there would be no purchases from the millers for the next some days,” said Sushil Mittal, president, Haryana Cotton Industries Association.

The registration certificates for the export of nearly 25 lakh bales (170 kg each) issued by the DGFT were already with the exporters when the Commerce Ministry banned the exports and stopped shipments.

“The price of raw cotton (narma) jumped to Rs 4,450 per quintal in the morning from Rs 4,250 on Saturday, as the news of lifting the ban came, but as soon as the conditions attached with the notification became known, the price fell by Rs 100 per quintal within hours,” Mittal maintained.

The government should immediately open new registration and remove the conditions attached in the notification, if it wants the farmers to get remunerative prices, he demanded. Swaran Singh Virk, state vice-president of the Haryana Kisan Sabha, however, alleged that farmers’ interests were nowhere in the mind of decision makers in such cases.

“What prompted the Commerce Ministry impose a ban on March 5 when shipments of cotton registered for exports were pending and what made it change its decision now need to be probed,” Virk said, demanding a firm policy.

Chandigarh, March 12
Hookah bars have been raising a controversy practically all over Haryana. Action has already been initiated against hookah bars in nine districts of Haryana, including Rohtak, Gurgaon and Hisar. Nine FIRs have also been registered against hookah bars across the state.

This was revealed this morning during the hearing of a petition against the functioning of hookah bars.

The development is significant as the data submitted to the Punjab and Haryana High Court goes contrary to the general impression of the menace being limited to Panchkula and neighbouring Chandigarh.

The compliance report containing the data was placed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Mahesh Grover. The report by CR Rana, Commissioner, Department of Food and Drug Administration, said nine FIRs had so far been registered in this connection.

While Five FIRs have been registered in Panchkula, two have been registered in Ambala and one each in Panipat and Faridabad.

Rana also informed the High Court that 102 samples of tobacco molasses containing nicotine had been seized for analysis after 66 hookah bars were raided . He said: “The test reports of 90 samples have been received, indicating the presence of nicotine in these samples”.

Rana added action under Section 144, CrPC, for violation of prohibitory orders had also been taken against hookah bars in Rohtak, Panchkula, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Panipat, Ambala, Hisar, Karnal and Fatehabad districts.

“Prosecution permission in 22 cases has already been granted ,” Rana added.

Panipat, March 12
With the arrest of two notorious criminals, the district police claims to have solved three cases of kidnapping. In all these cases, the victims were killed and their bodies were dumped into the canal.

SP Pankaj Nain said acting on a tip-off, the police tried to stop an Alto car near Sector 18. The occupants of the car fired at the police team and tried to flee. However, the police managed to nab the two after chasing them.

He said the accused were identified as Sonu of Naultha and Kewal, a resident of Sector 6. The SP said during interrogation, the two revealed that they had committed the three kidnappings, including that of a CBI constable with an intention of robbery. They later killed them and dumped the bodies into the parallel canals.

The three victims were identified as Chandra Prakash Mukija, an assistant administrative officer of LIC, Ved Prakash, a production manager at Micro Max Mobile posted at Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh, and Dalbir Singh, a constable with the CBI.

The police said Chandra Prakash Mukija had set off for Jaipur on February 27 after he was transferred there. But he never reached the railway station and disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Following this, a case of kidnapping was registered by Chandni Bagh police. He said the accused had even withdrawn Rs 25,000 from Chandra Prakash's account using his ATM.

Ved Prakash Sharma, who was a resident of Rohtak, was returning home from Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh on March 7 when he took lift in a car in which the two accused were travelling. The accused robbed him of his belongings and later dumped his body into the canal after murdering him.

The SP said CBI constable Dalbir Singh was on his way to his native Kard village on Friday last to attend the wedding of his cousin when he took lift in a car near Gohana Morh. But, he also disappeared after that.

The SP said the police was further interrogating the accused and more cases were likely to be solved.

Karnal, March 12
It was a touching reunion for 26-year-old tribal girl Saraswati, who finally met her father, Otul Sardar, after eight years. Mother of a girl child, Saraswati was living with her father in West Bengal after separation from her insane husband when she fell into the trap of an agent who lured her by promising a job.

Saraswati came to Delhi with the agent who sold her to a household where she was held as a bonded labourer. She worked there for three years without being paid. She somehow managed to escape and reached Panipat.

A labourer, Vinod, got married to her and even before she could lead a normal life, she went missing and was finally found in the civil hospital with a child, who was later snatched.

Saraswati alleged that two persons Hari and Bidu, snatched her child she gave birth to on October 28 last year. The hapless woman lived in the campus looking for her child for three months when a social organization took her to Nari Niketan.

Raj Singh Chaudhry, president of Pravasi Suraksha Vahini, an NGO, came to her rescue. The NGO located her father and husband and finally got them united.

Chaudhry said the hospital authorities were probing the missing child case and a complaint had been lodged with the police in this connection.

Karnal, March 12
The Karnal district administration today became the first district in Haryana to connect the block offices with mini secretariat through video-conferencing.

The facility has been made available at Gharaunda, Indri, Assandh and Nilokheri tehsil offices and Nigdu, Nissing and Balah sub-tehsil offices. At present, 15 departments have been connected to the Deputy Commissioner’s office through video-conferencing, which included offices of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), all SDMs, Block Development and Panchayat Officers, Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildar.

No extra expenses have been incurred for creating the facility as the existing computers with webcams have been connected through BSNL broadband to facilitate video-conferencing, said District Information Officer Tarun Goel. All related persons have been registered at the National Informatics Centre (NIC) portal and given IDs and passwords for accessing video-conferencing, he added.

The new technology adopted by the administration would go a long way in reducing the expenses incurred on fuel and save the time of the officials who had to come to the district headquarter for various meetings and other petty works, said Deputy Commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni.

Inaugurating the service by video-conferencing with other officials, Kasni said it would also help in keeping a tab on the officials who abstained from duty without getting the leave sanctioned and improve efficiency.

Rewari, March 12
Irate residents of Bhalki village, near Kosli village, resorted to a traffic jam on the Kosli-Salhawas road at Salhawas Chowk today to press their demand for naming the newly-built Kosli railway overbridge after Bhalki instead of Kosli as the overbridge had been built in the revenue area of Bhalki.

When the villagers presented their demand to the deputy commissioner, who visited the site today, he told them that their demand had already been forwarded to the HSRDC (Haryana State Road Development Corporation ), which was to take the final decision in this regard.

However, not satisfied with the DC’s explanation, the villagers resorted to the traffic jam, which was continuing till the filing of this report.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda is scheduled to open this overbridge through a remote device from nearby Dahina village tomorrow.

Chandigarh, March 12
The Haryana Vidhan Sabha has released the programme for biennial election to fill one seat in the Rajya Sabha by elected members of the Haryana Legislative Assembly on the retirement of Shadi Lal Batra on April 2.

Sumit Kumar, returning officer for the biennial election, said the last date for nominations was March 19, up to 3 p.m. Scrutiny of nomination papers would be held on March 20 while the last date for withdrawal was March 22, before 3 p.m.

Polling, if any, would be held on March 30 between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the committee room of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, Chandigarh.