Chandigarh, May 12
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has given a week’s ultimatum to the Haryana Government to explain the delay in the implementation of a 2003 notification on the extension of the “lal dora” (abadi deh), the boundary line beyond which construction is declared as illegal.

Apparently irked at the apathetic attitude of the state government, a Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice MM Kumar and Justice Alok Singh, during the resumed hearing in the ongoing case, asked the Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary to file an affidavit “explaining the reasons for the delay in the implementation of a 2003 notification”. At present, the construction beyond the “lal dora” is illegal under various provisions of the Punjab New Capital (Periphery) Control Act, 1952.

In fact, the issuance of the sole notification on November 4, 2008, on the extension of the “lal dora” for Chakkarpur village(Gurgaon) also came under the scanner of the High Court. “The affidavit must explain whether the ‘khasra’ numbers belonging to Chakkarpur village have been utilised by village ‘abadi’ or have been utilised for other purposes,” the Bench said while fixing the next date of hearing on May 15, 2012.

In his public interest litigation (PIL), advocate Vijay Bansal had contended that the “lal dora” was determined around a century ago when the land settlement took place. With an increase in the population of the village, thousands of “need-based” constructions by the owners on their land have taken place over the years, he added.

The Department of the Town and Country Planning had declared as controlled areas, including a large number of rural settlements, around the towns and institutions. Currently, any building outside the “lal dora” within the controlled area is declared as illegal and attracts action as per the provisions of the Act.

Rohtak, May 12
The driver, Satish, of Apna Ghar, a shelter home, was remanded in two-day police custody by a local court today. Satish is likely to provide a lead regarding the missing and abandoned children of the shelter home.

Though the police has officially claimed that at least six girl inmates had been missing for the past one week, sources, however, put the figure to a higher number. There is no record or data about some minor inmates who had either gone missing or died in the past few years.

The shelter home has 92 minor inmates at present. They include several mentally challenged children. The police said the driver’s arrest last evening could provide important clues as six inmates were dropped in Delhi on Tuesday night by the vehicle driven by him.

“Some of the girls had also reportedly been married off by the shelter home officials earlier, but there had been no official record as under what circumstances they had been married off and if their consent was taken for the same,” an official said. Apna Ghar has been running four different projects and had been getting grants from both the state and Union governments for the past over 10 years.

“A majority of the inmates lodged here have levelled charges of torture, immoral trafficking and bonded labour against the authorities concerned and this has been perhaps the reason that many of the girls had run away from here,” claimed Vinod Tikkoo, member of the National Commission for Protection of the Child Rights, which conducted a raid here on Wednesday night. The raid followed the recovery of three girls missing from here. The girls had alleged that they were being tortured here.

Tikkoo said the local authorities had also been equally responsible for the mess as no one cared to check the abuse going on here.

Though the main accused has denied charges and has claimed that she had documents to prove her innocence, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has said stern action would be taken against the guilty.

Gurgaon, May 12
Gurgaon today got the long-awaited city bus service with a fleet of 72 buses hitting the city roads on four routes in the first phase. Of these, 15 buses are air-conditioned. These buses will ply daily from 6 am to 11 pm.

The service was launched by the Director-General of the Haryana Transport Department, Arun Kumar, here today.

Talking to newsmen on the occasion, he said the number of city buses would be increased to 100 in the next six months. The service would gradually be expanded to cover 11 routes across the city, he added. Kumar disclosed that the state government was planning to run AC Volvo buses from Gurgaon to Jaipur and Agra as well.

In the ordinary city buses, the fare for a distance of up to 8 km has been fixed at Rs 5, up to 16 km at Rs 10 and up to 24 km at Rs 15. For AC buses, the fare is Rs 10 for up to 10 km; Rs 10, Rs 15 for up to 15 km and Rs 20 for up to 20 km.

Meanwhile, five more buses have also been added to the super-luxury Volvo fleet running between Gurgaon and Chandigarh, taking the number of these buses to 15. Arun Kumar also flagged off these buses here today.

Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena, GM Haryana Roadways (Gurgaon Depot) Yashender Singh, Joint Commissioner of MCG KK Gupta and HUDA Estate Officer Narender Yadav were also present.

The four city-bus routes made functional today include:

Route 1: From Gurgaon Bus Stand to IFFCO Chowk- MG Road- Sikanderpur Metro Station- Bristol Hotel- Genpact building- Kendriya Vihar and back.

Route 2: From Manesar to Karol Bagh, New Delhi, and back. Buses on this route will have 40 rounds in a day.

Route 3: From Gurgaon Railway Station to Mahavir Chowk- Maharana Pratap Chowk- Signature Tower- HUDA City Centre Metro Station and back.

Route 4: From Gurgaon bus stand to Dundahera and back. Buses will make 84 rounds daily on this route.

Chandigarh, May 12
Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda said today that Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Union Railway Minister Mukul Roy and Union Surface Transport Minister CP Joshi would launch various prestigious projects worth Rs 1230.55 crore in Jind district and address a mammoth public meeting there on June 3.

Hooda said June 3 would prove to be a historic day for the people of district Jind as the foundation stones for bypasses at Jind, Lakhanmajra and Julana towns, Railway over Bridge at Jind, four-laning of Jind to the Punjab border via Narwana and Jind-Rohtak National Highways, Jind-Sonepat railway line would be laid and the newly constructed building of the Government College for Women would be inaugurated at Jind.

Hooda said that the leaders would lay the foundation stone of Railway over Bridge, which would cost Rs 68 crore. It would be built on railway line on the Jind-Hansi road. A new road from Jind-Safindo road to Jind-Rohtak road via Jind-Gohana road would also be built. As much as Rs 2.32 crore would be spent on construction of this piece of road link.

Hooda said that the national highway connecting the Jind to Punjab border via Narwana and Jind-Rohtak highway would be four-laned, which would cost Rs 462 crore and Rs 283.31 crore respectively. New bypasses would be built at Jind, Lakhan Majra and Julana towns that would not only facilitate the common people but would also provide fast connectivity for the road users of that national highway.

The foundation stone of Jind-Sonipat railway line costing Rs 401.52 crore would be laid at Pandu Pindara. This significant rail project would connect Jind and Sonepat through Pandu Pindara, Lalit Khera, Banbheva, Ishapur Kheri, Butana, Khandri, Gohana, Rawra, Lath, Mohna and Badwasi. Under this scheme Haryana Government would contribute Rs 200.76 crore. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would also inaugurate the building of the Government College for Women, which has costed Rs 13.40 crore.

Chandigarh, May 12
The Indian National Lok Dal today alleged that the state was reeling under a severe power crisis due to substandard machinery used at the Yamunanagar and Kheddar power plants which usually remain non-functional.

Speaking to mediapersons after submitting a memorandum to the Haryana Governor, Jagannath Pahadia, the Leader of the Opposition and INLD chief, Om Prakash Chautala, accompanied by party MLAs and senior leaders, alleged that the power projects reeked of a huge scam.

“We have urged him to intervene in asking the government to fix responsibility for the projects which are constantly requiring repairs because of the substandard material and machinery used in their making. Let the government punish the corrupt responsible for this entire scam,” Chautala said.

He added that the CAG report, too, had taken a critical view of the two power plants and come down heavily on the government for changing the terms of the contract to benefit a few contractors.

“I even wrote to the Chief Minister highlighting the goings-on. He chose to ridicule me for bothering to even bring such a serious matter to his notice,” Chautala claimed.

Criticising the Chief Minister for taking along non-agricultural experts on his Israel visit, Chautala said the lists of those accompanying him was unnecessarily long, leading to avoidable expenditure.

Sirsa, May 12
Irked at denial of their social security pension by the authorities, senior citizens held a protest and blocked the road near the municipal committee office at Ellenabad in Sirsa today.

The senior citizens, including other beneficiaries like widows and differently abled persons, had assembled at the MC office after the authorities announced they would distribute their pension today.

Suddenly, the authorities stopped distributing the pension at 11 am and asked them to go back. The authorities informed that the pension funds with them had exhausted. Angry senior citizens, who were waiting for their turn under the sun, started raising slogans against the authorities and began a sit-on at the Panchmukhi Chowk near the MC office. The police officials tried to persuade them, but to no avail.

Later, they went back when they were assured that they would get their pension on Tuesday.

Hisar, May 12
The police has recovered fake currency notes worth Rs 8 lakh from the possession of Rajesh, a resident of Putthi village, in this district.

This the second haul from the suspect in three days. The police had earlier this week intercepted his car on a tip-off and recovered fake currency worth rupees Rs 4 lakh from it.

In the second haul, the police had recovered 316 fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination and 968 fake notes of Rs 500 denomination.

Rajesh is in police custody. His accomplice, Ramphal, who was travelling in the car when the first haul was made, is in judicial custody.

The police has found that he had been receiving and making frequent telephone calls to some numbers in the UK.

Sirsa, May 12
Even as the Wildlife authorities started their drive to catch stray dogs with the help of panchayats today, a black buck was killed in a canine attack at Jandwala Bishnoian and a woman injured by monkeys at Sahuwala in Sirsa.

A pack of stray dogs hounded a black buck and mauled it to death on the Kaluana road at Jandwala Bishnoia last evening, a day before the Wildlife authorities were to begin their drive to catch them.

Kesra Ram Bishnoi, president of the Akhil Bhartiya Jeev Raksha Samiti alleged that 14 black bucks have died in the village in the past five months, out of which 13 have been killed by stray dogs.

He said their organisation would organise a demonstration at Dabwali on May 14 and submit a memorandum to the authorities.

Meanwhile, the Wildlife authorities began their operation of catching stray dogs from Jandwala Bishnoia village today.

Chandigarh, May 12
To strengthen the drinking water system of district Panipat, Haryana Government has sanctioned a scheme of Rs 237.90 crore for setting up an ambitious canal-based water supply scheme.

While stating this today, an official spokesman said that for this project the land has been earmarked between both the rivers. The construction of this water works would be done under the supervision of Public Health Department.

He said that 16 boosting stations would be set up in the city and new pipe lines are being laid in the city. — TNS