Panipat, April 12
Despite a notification by the state government, which allows individuals to produce self-identification documents to get land deals registered, state revenue offices are yet to do away with compulsory identification by lambardars who fleece people in the name of identification.

In a notification issued on March 19, 2008, that was circulated among all revenue offices across the state, the government clearly stated that “when a registering officer is not acquainted with executants, he shall require them to produce documents to testify their identity.”

Though the government had made it mandatory for lambardars to identify the executants in a circular that was issued on November 13, 2001, the 2008 circular stated that this order be superceded and the latest orders be implemented immediately.

However, three years down the line, this notification has not been implemented in its true spirit in any revenue office , where identification by a lambardar continues to be the order of the day.

The discrepancy was brought to light when PP Kapoor, an RTI activist, filed a query with the state government seeking information about the validity of identification by lambardars. Kapoor said these lambardars normally pocketed a few hundred rupees to identify executants whom they did not know personally and that too without checking any document.

The official reply laid bare the fact that revenue offices were exploiting commoners by forcing them to get themselves identified by lambardars though they could prove their identities by producing either a passport, electoral voter card, PAN card or any identification card issued by the government.

Kapoor said though three years had passed since the circular was issued, none of the revenue officers in the state had so far bothered to put up this information outside their offices .

Kapoor had also inquired whether the government had imposed any prohibitory orders on the sale and purchase of any land in the state to which the government stated that no such restrictions had been imposed anywhere in the state.

Rohtak, April 12
Sleuths from the Income Tax Department raided the house of Capt Abhimanyu Sindhu, BJP national secretary, here this morning. It is learnt that a team of officials from the Income Tax Department reached the palatial house of Sindhu in Sector 14 here around 8 am and sealed the premises.

Policemen were posted at the entry gate and no outsider was allowed inside while the raid was on.

Though no official reason was given for the raid, sources claimed that it could be connected with coal mining activities in Chhattisgarh.

Sindhu’s mobile phone was found switched off and so several attempts made to get his version on the income tax raid proved futile.

Chandigarh, April 12
In a pro-poor decision, the Hooda Government has granted relief to BPL families, allowing them to pay pending electricity bills in instalments.

A circular issued by the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) said “the payment of cumulative energy bills for more than six months in respect of BPL consumers may be accepted in three or four instalments as they may not be in a position to make the payment in lump sum.

A senior official told The Tribune here today that as part of its social commitment, Haryana power utilities had provided BPL families with electricity connections free of cost.

Since power bills were generated a few months after releasing the connections, a large number of these families defaulted in the payment of bills.

Since electricity bills remained pending for years together, the facility of payment of bills in instalments would go a long way in reducing the number of defaulters, besides netting a substantial amount for the state exchequer.

Moreover, the rate of recovery from the poorer sections of society was better than that of affluent sections as the latter often resorted to litigation and other pressure tactics, he added.

While field officials had been ordered to implement the order in letter and in spirit, those failing to deposit the bills even in instalments would face penal action, including disconnection of power supply, the official added.

Jind, April 12
Three persons, Ranbir, Anil and Rohit, have been arrested in connection with the murder of a young housewife and her minor son a few days ago in ward 22 of Julana town in this district on April 6 . Two of the accused are reported to be kin of the victim’s husband. The police is yet to nab the fourth culprit, Lalit.

The accused were produced in the court today which remanded them in police custody.

The three were nabbed from a place in Ambala district last night. Ranbir and Anil are maternal uncle and cousin, respectively, of the victim’s husband, Pawan Kumar Digana last. The third accused was a domestic help of Ranbir, currently living at Saha village in Ambala district

‘’Ranbir hails originally from Mirchpur village in Hisar district and has a criminal past’’ said a police official. Ranbit had shifted to Ambala as part of a settlement reached with the victim’s kin at that time.

Police sources said Ranbir, who had come to know that Pawan had earned handsome gains in property dealing over the past few years, planned to loot the latter’s house on the fateful day. ‘But the plan got changed at the last moment as the accused decided to murder Pawan’s wife, Savita(28) and her minor sons, who recognised them, said the police .

While Savita was stabbed to death in the kitchen, her sons, Sumit (8) and Nitesh(5), were strangulated and stuffed inside a box kept there. While Sumit died on the spot, Nitesh survived and rang up his father immediately after the accused left the place. Nitesh also identified Ranbir from a family album later, which helped the police to zero in on the accused.

Jind, April 12
The district court has sentenced a retired SHO and an ASI to three-year jail for registering a false case against a shopkeeper in 2003. The court has also ordered a fine of Rs 9,000 each and in case of failure to pay the amount, the accused will have to serve an additional jail term of three months.

The sentence was pronounced by the court of District and Sessions Judge Ramender Jain in response to a petition filed by Ram Chander Singla, a resident of Pillukhera village, who runs a fertiliser shop there. The complainant said the accused, the then SHO of the area, Balwant Singh, and an ASI, identified as Krishan, had implicated him in a false criminal case after he failed to oblige them for settling a dispute with them. He charged the policemen with assaulting him and snatching from him cash and a gold ring worth Rs 13,500 on March 26, 2003, when the accused visited his shop. Though the matter was taken up with senior officials, the complainant had to file a case in the local court after he failed to get a proper response. It is learnt that the SHO has retired but the ASI was still in service. 

Chandigarh, April 12
Haryana Finance Minister HS Chatha today announced a hike in the rate of dearness allowance payable to government employees and dearness relief to its pensioners from 58 per cent to 65 per cent with effect from January 1.

Chatha said the employees would get DA in cash with effect from April. The arrears from January to March would also be paid in cash.

He said this would put an additional burden of Rs 639.58 crore on the state exhequer. 

Sonepat, April 12
Four officials of the Central Excise and Customs Department were caught by a team of the CBI while accepting a bribe of Rs 40,000 from Prahalad Goyal, the owner of a glass industrial unit, in their office at HSIIDC complex, Kundli, on Monday.

The officials, Inspectors Kamal Chopra and Rajinder Prasad, sepoy Bijender and peon Anand, were arrested and taken to Chandigarh on Monday night for producing them in the CBI court at Panchkula yesterday.

Chandigarh, April 12
The Supreme Court has dismissed an application filed by an NGO against the herbal park developed by the Haryana Forest Department at Gillankhera village in Fatehabad district.

The issue had snowballed into a major controversy after an IFS officer (Haryana cadre) Sanjeev Chaturvedi had objected to the development of the park, which, he alleged, was on private land. The state government’s stand was that the park had been developed on the panchayat land.

On the basis of a complaint by Chaturvedi, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests had constituted a two-member committee to inquire into the issue, among others. The committee had found merit in Chaturvedi’s complaint and had recommended, among other things, a CBI inquiry against the then Haryana Forest Minister Kiran Chaudhary and Haryana Chief Parliamentary Secretary Prahlad Singh Gillankhera, on whose land the park was being allegedly developed, and others.

The state government had rejected the inquiry report. Later the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) declared the inquiry committee as ultra vires.

Meanwhile, an NGO had moved the SC, which referred the issue to the Central Empowered Committee (CEC). The CEC examined the issue and reported to the apex court that “the CEC is of the view that no irregularity or illegality has been committed by the Haryana Forest Department in undertaking development of the herbal park on a non-government land, particularly when the management of the said area has been given to the Forest Department and this area has been notified under Section 38 of the Indian Forest Act.

“Apparently, no mala fides or violation of any Act, rules or the orders of this hon’ble court are involved.”

The SC dismissed the application of the NGO, saying that in view of the CEC report no ground is made up for interference. The apex court order has come as relief to Chaudhary and Gillankhera as well as the state government. 

Chandigarh, April 12
The Haryana Police Complaint Authority has ordered the suspension of an ASI for allegedly torturing a person in police custody.

A resident of Gumar village in Sonepat district had complained to the authority that he was arrested by the Ganaur police in 2011 in connection with FIR No. 25 of January 21, 2011. The FIR was against his nephew and did not have his name in it. He alleged that ASI Inder Singh tortured him in the police station as a result of which his eardrum was damaged and certain other vital parts of the body also sustained injuries.

The 65-year-old complainant said his injuries were mentioned in the medical examination report also.

The police tried to explain the injuries by claiming that the complainant had fallen when he was being taken to the police station in a vehicle.

Disbelieving the police version, Chairman of the authority HS Rana ordered that the ASI should be placed under suspension immediately. He also recommended that a regular inquiry should be held against him for taking further action.

The authority has so far disposed of 14 of the 68 complaints received . 

Rohtak, April 12
Government schoolteachers in Rohtak and Jind districts, who belong to the Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh, did not evaluate the first lot of answersheets handed over to them on Monday and Tuesday, claimed a spokesperson of the association.

The association said the teachers were unhappy with the meagre compensation for evaluation as compared to the payment made to their counterparts in other states. Demanding an increase in the evaluation fee, he said while the teachers should not be asked to do such work during holidays, they ought to get proper remuneration if they still opted or were given such work.

Government schools in the state are at present having crop holidays from April 9 to April 18. No evaluation work was done by the staff at Vaish School, Model Town, and Saini School’s branch at Rohtak on Monday, claimed Baljit Singh, a member of the association.

Similarly, teachers boycotted evaluation work at some of the centres at Jind on Monday and Tuesday, claimed a spokeperson. “The boycott will continue till the demands are met,’’ said a spokesperson of the sangh.

Sirsa, April 12
The Sirsa police’s action of booking college boys and girls found in a local guesthouse under the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act sparked protests from students on Tuesday. Students of the local Government National PG College boycotted classes and held a demonstration against the police action.

Yogesh Sharma, president of the district unit of the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), who led the demonstration said the police had crossed all limits of barbarity by branding teenaged students as prostitutes.

Later, in a memorandum submitted to the SDM, Munish Nagpal, students demanded that the cases registered against college students, three boys and three girls, be annulled and they be released from jail. The police had raided a guesthouse near the railway over bridge on April 4 and arrested four young couples from there. Three of these couples were students of some local colleges.

Earlier, led by former District Consumer Protection Forum, Rohtak president Jagdish Chopra, members of the Nagrik Parishad had met SP Devender Singh Yadav yesterday and lodged their protest against action. — TNS

Panipat, April 12
The 250 MW Unit-7 of Panipat Thermal Power Station (PTPS-2) of Haryana Power Generation Corporation Ltd (HPGCL) achieved a record generation of 1,940 Lakh Units of power during March 2012 at a Plant Load Factor (PLF) of 104.32 per cent which is the highest ever achieved by the unit in a month with negligible oil consumption.

A spokesman of HPGCL said the unit had been giving excellent performance consistently and had achieved an overall PLF of 96.09 per cent during the complete financial year 2011-12.

He added that this performance was comparable to the best performing thermal generating units of the country. He said the 250 MW Unit-8 of the power station had also performed remarkably well and had achieved a PLF of 96.57 per cent during March 2012 and a PLF with an overall 95.12 per cent during 2011-12.

The spokesman said the HPGCL management had credited the achievement to the dedicated and round-the-clock hard work of engineers and employees. He said HPGCL was fully geared up to meet the power demand during the peak summer season.