Gurgaon, July 26
In what comes as a major achievement for the SIT probing the Manesar mayhem, Dhanraj Bhambhi, a key member of the executive body of the union, was arrested today in Chittorgarh and brought here.

Bhambhi had run away to Chittorgarh on the night of July 18 and had switched off his mobile but a search party nabbed him there .

“It is a major lead for us because Dhanraj was a part of the 13-member core team we have been looking for. I think he will be useful in finding out whether the violenece was a pre-planned conspiracy or inpromptu. We are also looking forward to getting to know the whereabouts of others from him,” revealed an investigating officer.

Two workers were arrested yesterday in connection with last week's violence in Maruti's Manesar plant. Three out of six who were arrested on July 22 are also in judicial custody.

Yogesh Kumar, organising secretary of the Maruti Suzuki Union and a resident of Jhajjar, is in police custody till July 28. The arrest warrants were issued against 12 office-bearers of the workers' union, including Dhanraj, on July 23.

Meanwhile, exhibiting concern for the employees injured in the July 18 mayhem, Maruti Suzuki has constituted a 25-member team comprising members from Departments of HR, Safety and Welfare, Finance, Engineering etc to visit the injured colleagues at their homes. In a press note issued today, the company said it would help its employees come out of the traumatic experience of July 18.

The special team, led by an Executive Director, will try to gauge specific needs of the employees related to hospitalisation, medication, leave etc. This team will also counsel members to overcome shock and trauma.

“It is out of concern about safety and security of its employees that the company declared an indefinite lockout at the Manesar plant on July 21. The company is firm that safety and security of its employees is top priority, and work would not resume at Manesar unless this is ensured,” states the press note.

The labour violence at the Manesar facility left nearly 100 injured and Awanish Kumar Dev, General Manager, HR, dead.

Chandigarh, July 26
The Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday ordered the maintenance of status quo on over 111 acres in Rohtak. The villagers had alleged that their land was released to private builders even after the award of compensation.

The Bench headed by Justice Hemant Gupta made it clear that proceedings would not take place with regard to the land till further orders. The case will now come up for hearing on September 6.

In 2002, the Haryana Government had issued a notification for the construction of residential and commercial sectors 27 and 28 in Rohtak. Another notification was issued by the government in 2003 and compensation to be paid to the farmers was decided in 2005 before it was disbursed.

The villagers alleged that at the time of acquisition, they were forced to sell their land to private builders. The builders had offered more money than the compensation offered by the state. Even after the compensation was paid, the land from the final acquisition was released to builders in 2007 and 2008. The aggrieved land owners moved the high court in 2010.

Taking cognisance, the court has ordered status quo on the possession of the land till further orders.

Chandigarh, July 26
Jagmohan Dhiman, a former municipal councillor of Pinjore in Panchkula district, is a harassed man these days. For, he has been moving from pillar to post to get the registration certificate (RC) of his second hand Maruti WagonR car transferred in his name since 2010. He has lost count of the number of rounds he has made to the SDM office in Kalka. Not only this, he had to go to Haldwani in Uttaranchal a couple of times where the vehicle was originally registered to bring a no objection certificate (NOC) by hand.

But the SDM office wanted the NOC from the Haldwani SDM office by post. With the NOC by post allegedly lost ‘in transit’, Dhiman is at his wits end on his RC’s transfer though he had a photocopy of speed post receipt from the Haldwani office.

Yagya Dutt Sharma, a resident of Bhorian village, located about 40 km from here, first applied for the mutation of five biswas of land about 10 years ago. Sharma was at his receiving end following repeated assurances of the revenue officials. With the sale deed of the land, which was to be transferred from his mother’s to his name, allegedly “lost” in the tehsil office in Kalka, Sharma is only hoping for a miracle to get the ownership rights of the small piece of land.

Interestingly, for Sharma it is not his first brush with official apathy and red tape. In 2010, he had to make repeated rounds of government offices for over four months to get the RC of his new motorcycle.

With the Haryana government developing cold feet on the enactment of the Right to Services Act, the delivery of services in a time-bound manner to the “aam aadmi” seems to have gone for a toss in the state.

Despite tall claims of the Hooda government about the prompt delivery of 36 services, thousands of people wanting to avail government services and redressal of their grievances are left to fend for themselves. Following the footsteps of neighbouring Punjab, the Haryana government gave directions for the prompt delivery of services in June last year through an administrative order. This was to be followed by the enactment of the Right to Services Act.

Despite government orders, the delivery of services continues to be a far cry. Lack of monitoring by district officials is cited as a major hurdle in the implementation of the ambitious project.

Former Chief Secretary Urvashi Gulati, during whose tenure the administrative orders were issued, had extensively toured all the districts to prepare the ground for the enactment of the Act. However, since her retirement on March 31 this year, the state government seems to have put the proposed enactment of the Act into cold storage.

With no legislation to back the administrative orders, the officials responsible for providing time-bound services cannot be hauled up in the court of law.

Rewari, July 26
The judicial commission of inquiry into the violence that took place at Aasalwas village in Rewari district on July 22 will submit its report within three months, said leaders of the Bhoomi Adhigrahan Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti , which held parleys with Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in Delhi last night .

Exuding confidence that the judicial probe would fully reveal the truth behind the Aasalwas violence, they made it known that till the submission of the report by the above judicial commission, which would be headed by a retired judge of the high court, none of the farmers framed in criminal cases registered on July 16 and July 22 would be apprehended.

They added that the injured farmers would be provided treatment at the government’s cost and compensated if the commission so recommended.

Sirsa, July 26
Bring 75 per cent of the village water connections under metered supply and get cash reward. This is the message given by the district authorities to village panchayats in Sirsa.

The panchayats that take steps to stop wastage of drinking water in their respective villages will get cash award on Independence Day.

“The Haryana Government has formulated a rural water policy for 2012 to save precious drinking water by preventing wastage due to unmetered connections and open taps,” said Satish Kumar, City Magistrate, Sirsa.

He said under the policy, panchayats taking initiatives to save wastage of water would be honoured with cash awards.

“Villages with population up to 2,000 will get cash award of Rs 20,000 on achieving 75 per cent metered public water supply; those with population from 2,000 to 3,000 will get Rs 30,000; those between 3,000 and 4,000 will get Rs 40,000; and those having population above 4,000 will get Rs 50,000 as cash incentive,” Kumar said. 

Ambala, July 26
With no sewerage treatment plant in place, untreated sewage continues to be disposed in rivulets and nullahs on the outskirts of Ambala city thus posing a huge risk of infection to larger chunk of population. The ultimate victim of this is Tangri river where these smaller rivulets submerge into finally.

This is happening despite the tall claims of the government to provide basic infrastructure in all cities and towns of the state. The government was building a 20 MLD (million litre daily) capacity treatment plant in Rangia Mandi where a land dispute had cropped up later. The Rs 93-crore sewage treatment plant turned out to be a mere waste of funds as it never saw the light of day.

An Ambala resident Krishan Lal had obtained stay order against the construction of the plant from the Punjab and Haryana High Court claiming ownership of the land.

The foundation stone of the plant was laid by local MP Kumari Selja in March 2009. But soon after the construction work started, the whole project ran into trouble as Krishan Lal moved a petition in the High Court and procured a stay claiming that lease of the land was in the name of his father. The authorities had already spent 3.5 crore on the project when the whole land ownership dispute cropped up.

BJP legislator Anil Vij who had raised the issue in the state Assembly said that it was beyond comprehension as how the government could spend crores of rupees on land which was not in its possession.

“There were several places in the district where this project could have been set up. It is still a mystery as to why the authorities chose private land for the purpose. It was sheer negligence on the part of all those involved in the project,” Vij said.

The local authorities recently changed the land ‘girdawari’ of the said piece of land and started the construction work again at the site. However, the changed ‘girdawari’ was set aside by the SDM after finding that the procedure followed by the revenue officials while changing the ‘girdawari’ was not correct.

Krishan Lal, the petitioner, said he was contemplating to move a contempt petition against the state government and the local civic body for violating the stay orders issued by the High Court for restarting the construction work at the site.

The project was to be implemented in two phases. A sewage treatment plant of 10 MLD capacity was to be built at a cost of Rs 21 crore in the first phase while its capacity was to be augmented to 20 MLD along with providing sewerage system in the entire urban area of the Ambala Sadar in the second phase.

Sirsa, July 26
Five persons, including three members of a family, were killed and six others were injured in three road accidents in Sirsa today.

Sukhraj Singh, a resident of a local HUDA sector, had gone to pay obeisance at a gurdwara at Chormar village with his family.

When he was returning, his i-20 car collided with a private bus near Panjuana village on the national highway No 10.

Sukhraj Singh (45), his wife, Gurpreet Kaur (40) and daughter Sukhmani (9) died on the spot while his father, Darbara Singh, mother Bhagwati and son Murad were injured.

Passersby shifted them to the local General Hospital.

In another incident, Surender was killed and Deepak was injured when a pick-up van hit their motorbike on Dabwali road today. The victim was a security guard in a local school.

Dalip Singh, a resident of Begu village, was killed when he was run over by a truck while crossing a road.