Fatehabad, July 6
Activists of the BJP and the HJC organised a signature campaign against the upcoming Gorakhpur atomic power plant here today. They set up a tent outside the Fatehabad bus stand and requested passersby to put their signatures on a memorandum against the project.

Nihal Singh Matana, district president of the HJC; Molu Ram Rulania, district president of the BJP; Bimla Rohaz, district president of the women wing of the HJC, and several other leaders were present.

Hans Raj Siwach, president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti opposing the acquisition of land for the project, also participated in the campaign.

The leaders said as the plant would endanger the health of people living in the area, they would not allow it to come up. They said the Congress government was not only uprooting farmers from their land but also putting the life of people at risk. Siwach said the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti would not tolerate any “high-handedness” in taking possession of their land.

Meanwhile, the local authorities and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) have chalked out a strategy for taking possession of the land acquired for the project. The immediate task before the authorities is to hold peacefully a public hearing on environment impact assessment of the project at Gorakhpur on July 17. ML Kaushik, Deputy Commissioner, said a heavy police force would be positioned at Gorakhpur on July 17. “We will have three layers of security, one at the project site, second in the periphery of 1 km from the site and the third layer 5 km away from the site, to check all vehicles going towards the village,” Kaushik said. He said the authorities had already asked for sufficient paramilitary forces for this purpose.

The authorities plan to announce the award for 1,503 acres, 4 kanals and 19 marlas of land acquired for the project on the same day and start taking physical possession of the land from the next day.

Sonepat, July 6
Agitated over erratic power supply, residents of Bhatgaon village ot only locked the power sub station, but also blocked the Sonepat-Farmana road for around four hours yesterday.

They also deflated the rear wheels of the bijli nigam’s Executive Engineer’s jeep and allegedly manhandled him. The lock was opened and the blockade lifted after the nigam XEN, SKAhuja, assured the villagers in writing that the village would be supplied electricity for 13 hours daily.

The villagers claimed that the panchayat had donated land free of cost for setting up the power substation on an assurance that the village would get round-the-clock electricity supply. But the village was not even being given its due share of routine supply, they charged.

Rewari: Irate residents of a Harijan colony in Banipur village, near Bawal, held a demonstration in front of the office of the SDO, Electricity, at Bawal on Friday in protest against erratic power supply. They disconnected the electricity supply to the SDO’s office, brought him out and made him sit in the scorching sun. They also blocked the Bawal-Rewari road. They demanded 12-hour power supply daily and linkage of their power supply with the feeder of the HSIIDC, Bawal.

Gurgaon, July 6
No FIR has been registered in the case of five-year-old Sumit, who died after he accidentally fell into an industrial sewerage drain in Sector 7 of Manesar, near Baaskula village, last night.

Treating it as an accident, the local police has completed the proceedings under Section 174, CrPC.

Local residents allege that the move was aimed at saving the HSIIDC and other government authorities.

Sumit had gone to a nearby marketplace with his parents last evening. While returning home, he was reportedly walking ahead of his parents on this footpath. As it was dark, the child could not see the gap between slabs covering the drain and fell into it. This led to the death of Sumit, son of migrant labourer Manoj Kumar.

While Sumit’s mother or father were not in a position to comment, some of their relatives said police officials had got their signatures on certain papers the content of which was unknown to them.

Meanwhile, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner PC Meena has ordered an inquiry by Dr Satender Duhan, SDM (Gurgaon-North), into the matter. He has been directed to submit the inquiry report within 15 days.

Jind, July 6
The Ram Rai Naugama khap has come out in the support of the girl’s family regarding the death of a 25-year-old boy of Barahkhera village at the Rohtak PGIMS hospital on June 27 . The police had registered a case of murder as the victim’s kin alleged that he was poisoned to death due to his friendship with the girl residing on Bhiwani Road here.

Representatives of the Naugama khap met the SP yesterday and described the boy’s death as suicide and not a case of deliberate poisoning by the girl’s kin, as alleged.

The boy had come to the girl’s house on the fateful day to meet her father but did not return, claimed the complaint lodged by the boy’s mother. It is reported that the victim was known to the girl and wanted to marry her.

The khap delegation comprising the sarpanches of Bibipur, Ghimana and Ramgarh and Municipal Councillor Dalbir claimed that the victim, Navin, who had come to the girl’s house on June 27, had consumed poison in the street outside the girl’s house when his offer of marrying the girl was turned down.

The khap asked the SP to hold an independent probe into the matter as neither Dharambir, the girl’s father, nor any other kin was directly responsible for the boy’s death. The complainant has, however, claimed that the girl and the boy wanted to marry against the wishes of the former’s father, who called the boy to his house and got him poisoned.

Rohtak, July 6
Krishan Kumar Dahiya, a final-year MBBS student at the PGIMS, Rohtak, died after falling from the roof of a hostel on the campus here this morning.

He was reportedly drunk at the time of incident. The body has been sent for a post-mortem examination. Suspecting foul play, the victim’s kin have sought a probe into the incident.

Dahiya, who was doing internship at the PGIMS, died on the spot after he fell from the three-storeyed hostel. The incident took place around 5.30 am. A bottle of beer has been recovered from the spot. However, it is still a mystery whether Krishan had fallen after losing balance under the influence of liquor or someone pushed him, said a police official.

The victim hailed from Samaspur village of Jhajjar district and was admitted to the MBBS course in 2007-08.

Ravinder Singh, an uncle of the victim, who reached the PGIMS after the incident, felt there could be some other students with the victim at the time of this incident. He demanded a fair probe into the case. This is the first such case of death of a medical student in this institute in the past few years.

Chandigarh, July 6
The licence of a Ludhiana-based company to develop a cyber city in Sector 34 of Gurgaon has been cancelled by the Town and Country Planning Department for failure to comply with rules and regulations.

TC Gupta, Director-General of the department, observed that no development work had been started even four years after the allotment of a plot to the company. Besides, the company had failed to deposit nearly Rs 9.3 crore as enhanced external development charge (EDC).

Rockman Industries Limited, Ludhiana, was allotted 13.7 acres in Gurgaon’s Sector 34 to develop a cyber city on March 7,2008. As per the terms and conditions of the allotment, the company was required to complete 30 per cent of the IT area within three years of allotment. However, the company failed to obtain approval of the building plan.

The order said though the building plans were approved on November 17,2008, the plan could not be released on account of the non-payment of enhanced EDC. Besides, the company failed to submit a no-objection certificates from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and pay the labour cess. The order also listed violations of various provisions of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Rules, 1976.

A company representative, who appeared before the Director-General last month, admitted that the work on the ground could not start due to non-release of the building plans. He claimed that efforts were being made by the company to get an NOC from the AAI and MoEF.

Chandigarh, July 6
Additional Solicitor-General of India Mohan Jain said today that the top priority of the Centre was to cut down unnecessary litigation in this part of the region, including Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

Jain is the first Additional Solicitor-General of India from Haryana to be given an extension in the post. He was appointed Additional Solicitor-General of India on July 5, 2009. Jain's area of concern included Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal and Jammu & Kashmir.

Talking to the Tribune, Jain said the national litigation policy was already in place; and the need of the hour was to ensure its effective implementation for curtailing needless court cases. He asserted that successful implementation of the policy would reduce the pendency of court cases. His assertion is significant as the state is believed to be the biggest litigant.

A national arrears grid was also being put in place for keeping an eye on clearance of pending court cases across the country.

Jain, who specialises in constitutional, excise and taxation, election and company laws, was Haryana’s first advocate to get the post.

He is the fourth advocate from this region to be appointed Additional Solicitor-General. Justice Kuldip Singh, who also remained in the post, was subsequently elevated to the Supreme Court . Kapil Sibal, who also belongs to Chandigarh, was practicing law in Delhi when he was appointed to this post.

Jain started his legal career under Haryana’s former Advocate-General and a legal luminary, Hira Lal Sibal. He was closely associated with the drafting of the chargesheet submitted by the Congress to the Haryana Governor against the then Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, before the 2005 Assembly elections. The matter is currently pending before the CBI court.

Chandigarh, July 6
The Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) has denied that it had ever signed an MoU with a Dutch company for developing forest land in Faridabad district for residential and commercial purposes.

BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya had alleged here yesterday that the Dutch Haryana Business Consortium and the HSIIDC had signed an MoU for developing 400 hectares of forest land for residential and commercial purposes.

Describing the allegation as “factually incorrect”, a spokesman of the corporation said neither the HSIIDC nor the Industries Department owned any land in the area. Therefore, there was no question of allotting land to any company.

He clarified that the Dutch Haryana Business Consortium had approached the state government for setting up a project in Faridabad district. Only a statement of interest was signed between the HSIIDC and the consortium in 2006 and no MoU or joint-venture agreement was ever executed. Since the developers failed to get the required approvals and clearances, the project did not take off. — TNS