Chandigarh, June 1
To encourage sportspersons, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today announced a considerable increase in the award money given to them for outstanding achievements at various national and international level tournaments.

Hooda said after a Cabinet meeting that all players participating in the Olympic Games would get Rs 11 lakh each. Players participating in Asian, Commonwealth and Para Olympic Asian Games would get Rs 2 lakh each.

Earlier, there was no provision of any cash award for participation in any of the tournaments.

Hooda said the players from Haryana winning gold, silver and bronze medal in the Olympic Games would now get Rs 2.50 crore, Rs 1.50 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively. Asian Games gold, silver and bronze medalists Rs 25 lakh, Rs 15 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, respectively, instead of Rs 10, 7 and 5 lakh given earlier. Commonwealth Games gold, silver and bronze medalist playersfrom Haryana would get Rs 15 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 5 lakh, respectively, instead of Rs 7 lakh, 5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh.

A Para Olympic Asian Games gold medalist player would now get Rs 25 lakh against the earlier Rs 1 lakh only. The silver and bronze medalist players would now get Rs 15 and Rs 10 lakh, respectively, instead of Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000. Gold, silver and bronze medal winners of World Cup would now get Rs 5 lakh, Rs 4 lakh and Rs 3 lakh respectively instead of Rs 3 lakh, Rs 2 lakh and Rs 1 lakh.

To encourage upcoming players, the Youth Olympic, Youth Asian and Youth Commonwealth Games medal winning players would also be given cash awards. Earlier, the medal winners of these games were not eligible for any cash award. Gold, silver and bronze medal winners from Haryana in Youth Olympics Games would get Rs 10 lakh, Rs 7.5 and Rs 5 lakh, respectively. A Youth Asian Games gold medalist would get Rs 7 lakh, silver medalist Rs 5 lakh and bronze medalist Rs 3 lakh. Gold, silver and bronze medal winners in the Youth Commonwealth Games would get Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively.

Award money for the Asian Championship has been increased four times. Asian Championship gold, silver and bronze medal winner players from Haryana would now get Rs 4 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, respectively.

Chandigarh, June 1
The Hooda government had abolished house tax on self-occupied residential properties in 2008 as promised by the Congress in its election manifesto. However, when the Union Government linked the grants for the development of municipal areas with the property tax, the state government reintroduced it in 2010.

The property tax assessment formula devised at that time was found to have put a heavy burden on property owners. The government directed the civic bodies not to issue notices to the property owners till a new formula was evolved. The Cabinet today approved the new formula, which would impose a token tax of Re 1 per sq.yrd on residential properties up to 250 sq.yrd.

Chandigarh, June 1
The main opposition party in Haryana, the Indian National Lok Dal, has criticised the state government for imposing property tax.

In a statement issued here today, leader of the opposition and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala said the Congress had promised in its manifesto that it would abolish property tax in the state. By reintroducing the tax in the state, the Hooda government had betrayed the electorate.

Chautala demanded that the property tax be revoked immediately.

BJP leaders Krishan Pal Gurjar, Anil Vij and Gian Chand Gupta have also criticised the government move to impose property tax in the state. They said the government had no moral right to reimpose property tax as it had come to power on the promise of abolishing this tax. They also demanded that it should be withdrawn immediately.

Chandigarh, June 1
For the Haryana Government, “austerity” perhaps is a mere cliché to be used from public stages.

The state Cabinet today made the travel of MLAs convenient by allowing them to fly in executive class instead of economy class, which was described as “cattle class” by a union minister some time ago.

Panipat, June 1
Failure to provide information about storage of grain has drawn the ire of Central Information Commission (CIC) upon a public information officer (PIO) of the Department of Food and Public Distribution of the union government as the commission has served him with a 25-day show-cause notice.

In strongly worded orders passed recently over a petition moved by local RTI activist P.P. Kapoor, the CIC maintained that “an assessment of the questions raised by the RTI applicant would reveal that much of the information should already be available in the public domain.”

The commission said there were certain points where the Department of Food and Public Distribution would have been able to provide specific information.

The commission also recorded that “it is a serious matter that neither did the Department of Food and Public Distribution address its responsibilities under the RTI Act nor did the department participate in the hearing, which calls for an enquiry.”

Pronouncing the decision, the CIC said, “The PIO of the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) is required to show-cause within 25 working days as to why action should not be taken against him as per law.”

The commission also ordered the DFPD to provide the information by way of statistics and synopsis about the initiatives taken by the government for storing the foodgrain.

In May last year, Kapoor had file an RTI with the PIO of the Prime Minister's Office, seeking information on foodgrain storage and the steps being taken to increase godown capacity, prevent rotting and ensuring protection from pests. 

Chandigarh, June 1
The Haryana Cabinet today decided to reduce VAT on Bitumen Emulsion and Crumb Rubber Modified Bitumen (CRMB) from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

The decision to reduce VAT on CRMB has been taken in view of the fact that although a large number of road construction projects are going on in Haryana, there is yet a marked decline in the sale of CRMB from Haryana. The Cabinet also reduced VAT on surgical operation theatre tables and surgical operation theatre lights from 12.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

It also approved a proposal to write off the arrears of sales tax under the Haryana General Sales Tax Act, 1973, and the Central Sales Tax Act, 1956, which have become irrecoverable.

The Cabinet also approved the proposal to increase the authorised share capital of the Haryana Scheduled Castes Finance and Development Corporation from the existing Rs 50 crore to Rs 80 crore.

It approved a proposal to take out 1,091 posts of jail warders (male and female) from the purview of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission. These posts will now be filled through a departmental committee to expedite the recruitment process.

The Cabinet also amended the Haryana School Education Teachers Rules, 2012. According to the amendment, the recruitment shall be on a regular basis and the persons appointed to any post in the service shall remain on probation for two years, if appointed by direct recruitment, and one year if appointed otherwise. In the case of promotion, the condition of having qualified the eligibility tests has been omitted.

The Cabinet decided that now onwards 65 per cent recruitment to the Superior Judicial Service would be made by promotion on the basis of merit-cum-seniority and passing of suitability test as compared to 50 per cent on this basis earlier. 

Karnal, June 1
The illegal and hazardous practice of siphoning off LPG from cylinders while these were in transit today resulted in a tragedy as the truck carrying the cylinders caught fire, causing serial blasts near Kohand on GT road, 25 km from here, in the wee hours. Six persons were reportedly injured in the blasts.

The explosions were so powerful that three Maruti cars and one bike parked along the truck and an adjoining spinning mill caught fire. Some children of labourers also sustained injuries as a cylinder burst close to their makeshift houses.

The deafening sound of the blasts rattled doors and windows and a high power transmission link was snapped. Eyewitnesses said that six persons engaged in the pilferage of LPG were injured but the gas mafia whisked them away to ensure that no evidence was left behind.

Around 15 fire tenders summoned from the adjoining districts took about eight hours to douse the flames. The residents who were tenterhooks said they had a lurking fear that a disaster was awaiting the village. “The residents are also angry as no senior official visited the spot even after six hours of the blasts,” said an eyewitness, Sohan Lal.

The police said there was no report of any injury. “We are investigating the matter and searching the nearby hospitals for injured persons. The guilty will be brought to book,” said SP, Karnal, Shashank Anand.

Fatehabad, June 1
Cotton crops and vegetables on over 100 acres were allegedly inundated due to a breach in the Munshiwala Minor canal near Aherwan village in Fatehabad late last night.

The breach occurred due to the felling of trees in the canal due to strong winds last evening and soon the gap widened to 20 feet.

As water started flowing towards the fields, some farmers clashed over constructing bandhs to save their crops.

A police party from Fatehabad reached there to pacify the quarrelling villagers.

Farmers Gulzar, Sukhdev, Satnam, Khazan, Manjit and Gurmez alleged that vegetables, cotton crop and nurseries of paddy on their fields had been damaged due to flooding of their lands.

Gurmez, a farmer, tried to construct a temporary bandh to save his fields, but others opposed his move.

Satish Kumar Jinaawa, executive engineer, Irrigation Department, Fatehabad, claimed that the breach was plugged in the morning with the help of JCB machines.

He said the water supply to the minor was closed from the rear for minimising the damage.

He maintained that only a few acres of land was submerged under water and there was no financial loss to the farmers.

Jind, June 1
The police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the mob of students of an engineering college near Julana town this noon after the highway connecting Jind with Rohtak was blocked by them in protest against the alleged delay in tracing the two students who got drowned in a canal today.

The movement of traffic could be restored after two hours of disruption caused due to protest by the students.

The movement of traffic on the spot, located around 20 km from here, came to a halt after about 100 students of an engineering college here assembled on the highway to collect information about the two students who got drowned in the nearby canal. The victims, identified as Sachin and Satish, had come to have a swim in the canal, but they got swept away in the large volumes of water gushing with speed.