Fatehabad, June 29
The district authorities and farmers opposing the acquisition of their land for the upcoming Gorakhpur Atomic Power Project are heading towards a face-off with the police booking nearly 50 villagers and the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti spearheading the agitation, announcing to intensify its struggle.

After their meeting with the INLD secretary-general, Ajay Singh Chautala, the HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi and some others, the farmers have been assured of support by the INLD, the HJC, the BJP and the Left parties for their struggle.

The Kisan Sangharsh Samiti has announced to organise dharnas at the district level across the state on July 9, when their agitation completes its 700 days and a “Maharally” on August 17 to mark two years of the struggle.

“We have been assured that social activist Anna Hazare, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, INLD leader Ajay Singh Chautala, HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi and many other leaders of these parties will participate in August 17 rally,” said Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti.

Senior leaders of the CPM, including its state secretary Inderjit Singh, have already been supporting the agitation.

Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan and Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev have visited the dharna site of farmers in the past and have already assured of their support to the farmers.

The police, meanwhile, registered criminal cases against 40 to 50 persons for manhandling officials of the Revenue Department who had gone to the village for a survey of the crop on the land acquired for the project on Wednesday.

The case has been registered at Bhuna police station for rioting, assaulting public servants.

Besides the public hearing at the project site for providing environment clearance to the nuclear power plant on July 17, the authorities need to carry out several surveys before deciding distribution of award money to villagers, but the agitating farmers have warned government officials not to venture in their fields.

Jind, June 29
Agitated over the police “failure” to arrest the accused of the murder of a youth a week ago, several families of the Dalit community at Hatho village in the district have threatened to leave the village in case the police failed to arrest the accused.

The families that had prepared to leave the village on Thursday noon were persuaded by the police not do so as it assured them of prompt action in arresting the accused involved in the murder of a youth, Anil Kumar (25), on June 22.

It is reported that Kumar was beaten to death and the accused tried to burn his body. The half-burnt body was retrieved by the police who handed it over to the relatives after a postmortem.

Sunil, a brother of the victim, alleged that Kumar was murdered by a group of youths belonging to an upper caste and the police was trying to shield the accused due to their social and political clout.

It is reported that the police has rounded up one of the accused while others have gone missing. While around 40 families of the village packed up their belongings and announced to leave the village on Thursday, police officials, who reached the village, persuaded them to unpack their belongings, assuring them of swift action regarding the arrest of the accused.

The Dalit families had threatened to go to Delhi and stage a dharna near the house of the UPA Chairperson, Sonia Gandhi. The affected families are still in the village but have threatened to leave if the police failed to arrest the murder accused by this evening, claimed a police official.

"The police will arrest all the accused involved in the murder and not let the issue take a serious turn,” claimed a senior police official.

Sirsa, June 29
In the eye of a storm for a plethora of controversies surrounding it, Sirsa’s Shiv Shakti Blood Bank faces another major trouble now. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Haryana, has suspended its licence for some serious irregularities found during a recent routine inspection by the FDA officials.

Girdhari Lal Singal, State Drug Controller-cum-Joint Commissioner of FDA, Haryana, who issued the suspension order yesterday, said several irregularities were found in the records of the blood bank during inspection.

“Besides this, Shiv Shakti Blood Bank has been constantly wasting disproportionately high quantities of blood collected through blood donation camps organised in the area due to expiry,” Singal added.

Ironically, two of the recent controversies involving the blood bank are denying blood for a road accident victim, a poor migrant Bihari labourer unable to pay for the two units of blood he needed, and refusal to issue blood for a critically ill girl without replacement, whose father was unfit to donate blood.

The road accident victim, Sikander (32), later died for want of blood.

The blood bank, incidentally, wasted nearly 650 blood units in 2011 and has already discarded about 250 units in the first quarter of 2012 due to expiry or otherwise.

In December 2010, the police had recovered 82 blood-filled bags of expired date belonging to Shiv Shakti Blood Bank dumped on the roadside on the outskirts of Sirsa.

Following this, the police had lodged an FIR and the Haryana State Blood Transfusion Council had withdrawn permission granted to Shiv Shakti Blood Bank to hold blood donation camps.

However, due to unknown reasons, the local authorities not only allowed them to hold camps again on their own, but showered largesse by “gifting” the blood bank a Rs 40-lakh air-conditioned bus “Rakt Vahini” purchased from funds diverted from the Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF) - a centrally sponsored scheme for addressing regional imbalances of backward districts.

Dr Ved Beniwal, chairman of the Shiv Shakti Blood Bank, said he had not received any orders of suspension of licence so far.

Rohtak, June 29
The preparations of the authorities concerned to ensure safety of the stored foodgrains appears to be half-hearted. With rains round the corner, hundreds of quintals of wheat lying in open seems be to be highly susceptible in case of inclement weather.

While a total of about 9.92 lakh metric tonnes has been procured this season almost 35 to 40 per cent of wheat had been lying in open in Rohtak and Jind districts. “Though the wheat had been procured by various government agencies, including Hafed, Confed, Food and Supply and Haryana Warehousing Corporation, the lack of adequate covered space has been the main problem as thousands of quintals of wheat has been stored in open with the option of covering these with plastic sheets,” said sources.

“Due to lack of godowns and built up space, the authorities concerned store wheat by setting up stacks in the open and these remain till the agencies do not find enough space to shift it elsewhere,” said an employee. Admitting that wheat bags stored in open were very much vulnerable to get damage in case of rains as the plastic sheets used to cover them also gets damaged by strong winds and water, said an agent at the Jind grain market.

While about 5,000 quintals of wheat in Rohtak and over 25,000 quintals of wheat in Jind had been stored under open sky, the officials concerned however, claimed that the wheat bags stored in open had been safe as they had plastic sheets, which could be put on the stacks when rains would hit the region. It is revealed that stacks of wheat bags had been put on the road and many bags had already started showing signs of wear and tear and these could give way anytime resulting in exposing the grain to the water.

With bumper crop this year, stacks have been put at several places in open, including the main grain markets in both urban and rural pockets. Though no official record is maintained regarding the damage suffered by wheat kept in open each year in these two districts, it is however claimed that the damage could be up to 10 per cent of the total produce stored in open due to weather and negligence on part of the department concerned.

Chandigarh, June 29
The fraudulent sale of land valued at Rs 4 crore in a plush colony of Panipat has cost three officials of the Haryana Housing Board (HHB) dear with the board deciding to lodge criminal cases against them.

Sources said the trio--Vibha Walia, Town Planner, Mahender Singh and Roshan Lal, Both Estate Managers-conspired to sell 370 square yards in the plush Sector 11-12 (Part I) of Panipat for a mere Rs 15 lakh. However, the actual prevailing market price of the land as per a report submitted by Jagminder Goyal, Executive Engineer, Panipat, is over Rs 4 crore, sources asserted.

The sale-purchase agreement was prepared by the accused officials and the conveyance deed was also done in favour of the buyers.

As per an agreement between the board and the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), the land belonged to the latter and the housing board was not authorised to sell it. However, these officials connived to sell the prime land, causing loss to the state exchequer.

As per the agreement, the board paid for only 55% of the land which was developed as a residential area by it in the sector while the remaining land was used by HUDA for developing green areas, parks and roads. In the layout plan, this piece of land was marked as a green belt and a 33-KV power substation was also installed by the Electricity Department there, sources said.

RS Kharb, Chief Administrator of the board, confirmed that FIRs would be lodged against the three officials.

Jind, June 29
Five policemen, including an SHO, have been suspended in connection with the death of a truck driver on Thursday. Two of the policemen have been arrested after being booked for murder. The truck driver, identified as Noordeen (35), had died after he was allegedly punched by a policeman at a barricade near Pauli village, about 25 km from here, last evening.

The policemen who had stopped the truck for a routine check at the barricade got involved in an altercation over the money demanded from the truck driver. A kin of the victim had alleged that the victim died after he was punched by a policeman over a dispute over the bribe money to let him pass from the barricade.

The policemen who have been suspended include the SHO, Dhoop Singh, ASI Santosh Devi, head constable Rajesh and constables Joginder and Suresh Kumar. Joginder and Suresh have been booked for murder and have been arrested, said police sources. A case under Sections 302, 323 and 34, IPC, has been registered against the two policemen.

It is alleged that the policemen posted at the barricade asked for the documents of the vehicle and the goods being transported. They reportedly sought a bribe of Rs 2,000 from the driver. “As he expressed his inability to give the amount and requested them to settle for less, one of the policemen came from behind and punched him in the chest leading him to collapse on the spot,” claimed Shokeen Khan, elder brother of the victim, Noordeen.

In his complaint to the police, Shokeen told the officials concerned that Noordeen was driving one of the three trucks which had been carrying stone powder and had come from Piproli in Rajasthan. The trucks were going to Punjab. — TNS

Kaithal, June 29
For the first time, Haryana Industries Department will construct roads in areas where small industries are situated. This was stated by Randeep Singh Surjewala, state PWD and Industries Minister, while addressing a press conference at the media centre after laying the foundation stone of a Rs 2.50-crore roads construction project in Industrial Area here today.

Surjewala said the design of these roads had been prepared by the NIT, Kurukshetra, and keeping in view the movement of heavily loaded vehicles, the thickness of these roads would be one-and-a-half feet and the width 18 feet. These roads would have a long life span. He said the need to construct such roads was being felt since long as about 450 small-scale industrial units were functioning in the area. He said some of the units export rice and other goods to other countries.

The minister said services of foreign engineers had been requisitioned to rectify defects in the power houses and arrangements were being made to ensure supply of quality coal to the power houses so that power generation could be increased.

Surjewala also inaugurated a newly constructed Senior Citizen Bhawan here today and presented mementos to 20 senior citizens. He said furniture would also be provided and the Vivekanand District Library in the close vicinity of the building would be very useful for the citizens.

Hisar, June 29
The government will set up a Gaushala Commission to make gaushalas self-reliant, said Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Hansi, near here, today. He was speaking at a function held to celebrate the centenary of the Shri Haryana Gaushala.

Hooda said the proposed commission would analyse the working of gaushalas and suggest ways and means for boosting their incomes. This would strengthen these charity organisations and help make them self-reliant.

The Chief Minister said all gaushalas were not financially sound today and he was pained to find stray cattle roaming in the streets. This had to end, he added.

He laid the foundation stone of a modern gaushala at Dhri Haryana Gaushala. This would be built in eight acres. He also announced a grant of Rs 11 lakh to the gaushala. Hooda said the gaushala would also get Rs 10 lakh from Rajya Sabha member Ram Prakash’s MPLAD fund and Rs 5 lakh from Chief Parliamentary Secretary Dharamveer’s discretionary fund.

There are 283 gaushalas in Haryana.

Panipat, June 29
Haryana is facing long power cuts as the daily power demand in the state has exceeded 1554 lakh units. The power shortage has crossed the 260 lakh units mark this year. The problems for power utilities have been aggravated by the temporary closure of a 600-MW thermal unit at Khedar. The state overdrew a record 210 lakh units from the northern grid at a cost of Rs.4.09 per unit.

The forced outage of two 300-MW units at Yamunanagar and a 600-MW Khedar unit because of turbine faults has forced the power utilities to impose power cuts at the start of the summer season. Another 660-MW thermal unit at Jhajjar has not been operating due to coal problem.

The power shortage during peak hours was recorded at more than 1759 MW as the utilities were able to supply 5,212 MW. The net power generations available from the state’s own sources was around 1700 MW. As much as 2111 MW was being garnered from inter-state generating stations and 450 MW through power exchange.

Despite the power utilities’ claims that a four-hour power cut was being imposed daily, residents were facing a minimum 10-hour unscheduled cut. These unscheduled cuts have changed the daily routine of people with water supply hit due to power disruption.

The power shortage has also forced industrialists to run their units on diesel generators, increasing their input costs.

Karnal, June 29
Maya Devi (65) died of a heart attack in Tarauri yesterday. Maya Devi’s relatives alleged that she was tense owing to police investigation in a domestic dispute with her two daughters-in-law. The deceased’s relatives who were planning to block Hospital Chowk were persuaded not to do so on an assurance that action would be taken against those found guilty.

Jai Bhagwan, the victim’s son, said policemen were only listening to one side of the story and pressuring Maya Devi to reach a compromise.

The body has been sent for a postmortem examination.