Chandigarh, September 24
Admonishing Haryana for inaction against encroachers, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has minced no words to say that the attitude of the state was “escapist”.

The rap on the knuckles came on a petition filed by the gram panchayat of Bhadangi village in Rewari district, alleging that phirni/bachat had been unauthorisedly occupied

The gram panchayat said it had shot off a notice on the issue of encroachment. Thereafter, the Nahar Block Development and Panchayat Officer forwarded a letter dated January 12, 2011, to the Kosli SDO (Civil) for providing police help to the gram panchayat.

Even the Rewari Deputy Commissioner forwarded a letter dated February 17, 2011, to the SP. He was asked “to remove unauthorised possession from the phirni of the Bhadangi gram panchayat ”. The petitioner again submitted a representation but no action was taken, compelling the petitioner to approach the court.

Taking up the matter, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “I find the attitude of the state as escapist. If the panchayat has approached the official respondent like the Deputy Commissioner, to remove encroachment on phirni, it was expected of the Deputy Commissioner or the SDO to take appropriate action. If any demarcation was needed, the same could have been got done through the tehsildar or other revenue officials”.

Justice Ranjit Singh concluded: “The directions, therefore, are issued to the Deputy Commissioner to immediately detail the tehsildar, who would carry out demarcation of the area and in case respondents are found to be in unauthorised occupation of phirni, the same shall be removed immediately. This action shall be completed within a month”.

Lal dora denotes village land which is part of the village “abadi” or habitation. Between 1908 and 1952, when a consolidation exercise was taken up again, the population of villages has increased.

The villages too had extended beyond the earlier defined boundaries. The new periphery boundaries were termed as “phirni”. The area between the earlier lal dora boundaries and the “Phirni” was known as the extended lal dora area.

Chandigarh, September 24
The race for the post of DGP has hotted up with at least six eyeing the coveted slot.

With Ranjiv Singh Dalal, DGP, retiring on October 31, the countdown for selecting the new police chief has begun with the top brass in the Hooda government holding informal parleys to “shortlist” the names.

Sources said the names of two seniormost officers of the 1974 batch of the Indian Police Service — Brijender Rai, Director-General/OSD (Rules), and Gurjot Singh Malhi, Commissioner of Security, Civil Aviation,New Delhi — are being ruled out as they would retire in the next two months. Similarly, another officer of the 1975 batch-Sharad Chander Sinha-is also “well-placed” in New Delhi as the Director of the National Investigation Agency. He is due to retire on October 31, 2013.

While Alok Joshi (1976 batch), Special Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, New Delhi, has 11 months to go for his retirement, his batchmate Rakesh Malik, Director-General(Prisons), has just four months for his superannuation. Another 1977 batch officer, VN Rai, currently posted as Director of the Sardar Vallahbhai National Police Academy, Hyderabad, will demit office on December 31 this year.

Sources said PK Mehta, a 1977 batch officer, currently posted as Inspector-General-cum-Chief Security Commissioner, Northern Railways, New Delhi, is keen to return to the state. He will retire on January 31, 2014.

The 1979 batch officers, Satyendra Kumar, Commandant-General, Home Guards; Sharad Kumar, DGP (Crime), and RK Vacchher, DGP (Human Rights and Litigation), have one to two years for retirement.

Another contender for the top post is Sriniwas Vashisht (1981), Director of the Haryana Vigilance Bureau.

With Chief Minister Hooda facing election in two years, a tenure of at least two years for the new DGP would play a crucial role in the selection.

Sirsa, September 24
The state government has removed Devender Singh Mor from the post of Director-cum-Principal of Chaudhary Devi Lal Memorial Government Engineering College (CDLMGEC) at Panniwala Mota in the district and asked Sirsa Deputy Commissioner Dr J Ganesan to look after his duties as an additional charge.

Most of the teachers working in the institution too had extended their support to the protesting students who had been demanding Mor’s removal from the post.

Yesterday, the students ended their nearly 11-day-old strike on the assurance of the DC, who told them that the government would take a decision on their demand soon.

Earlier in the day, Mor removed eight faculty members from service for “instigating students.”

In his orders, Mor said the teachers would be treated as removed with immediate effect but they would be treated absent from September 12, the day students began their strike.

The ‘removed’ teachers are Satveer and Karanbeer Singh from the Computer Science and Engineering Departments, Ravi Kumar and Avtar Singh from the Mechanical Engineering Department, Mukesh Bansal from the Electrical Engineering Department, Varun Makani and Avish Kumar from the Electronic and Communication Engineering Department and Ashok Kumar of the Mathematics Department.

The teachers met Ganesan in the evening, who assured them that he would look into their case.

Owing to a tussle between the Director-Principal and non-teaching staff, development activities in the college had come to a standstill for the past three years.

“Though Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh laid the foundation stones of Rs 16.11 crore projects of library building and computer hall here on April 3, 2010, not a single brick has been laid in all these 29 months despite receiving funds from the state government,” alleged a teacher.

Mor, however, maintained that some teachers had been giving coaching in private engineering colleges in Bathinda and Hisar and when he stopped them, they started instigating students.

Regarding delay in the start of work on various projects, Mor said, “Projects do take some time to materialise.”

He, however, admitted that money was no constraint in the construction of these buildings.

Karnal, September 24
Two persons on a motorcycle today robbed a woman of Rs 1 lakh on the busy Kunjpura road in the town.

Suman (40), a resident of Jhadoli village, took a loan of Rs 1 lakh from the Kunjpura branch of the HDFC Bank against her jewellery. As soon as she came out of the bank, the two persons on a motorcycle snatched her bag containing money. When Suman tried to resist, they pushed her aside and fled the spot.

Karnal, September 24
Precious time wasted in delivering reports to ilaka (area) magistrates, deputy superintendents of police and superintendents of police about heinous crime cases lodged in various police stations would now be saved.

The traditional hand delivery system has been replaced by e-mail. Reports would now be available simultaneously to all without loss of time and prompt action would be possible, Karnal superintendent of police Shashank Anand said.

He said the police had approached the sessions judge with the idea of e-mailing of reports and the new system was put in place 10 days ago.

The new system was aimed at making the force hi-tech and expedite cases. There had been instances when a report was lodged in the late hours and its delivery by hand was not feasible due to lack of transport facility.

The new initiative would also speed up the trial as scanned copies of the document and statements of witnesses would be available through e-mail and further details could be obtained.

Anand said the director-general of police had directed all districts to adopt the new system. Investigation officers would also be able to perform better with information technology-enabled services.

The pilot project would be launched at Madhuban police station under which five laptops would be provided to the station house officer and four beat in charges. It would be the first hi-tech police station of Haryana, the superintendent of police said, adding that funds had been received for the project.

The laptops would be equipped with software for analysis and connected to the crime and criminal tracking networks for quick response. Out of the 1,200-odd policemen in the district, 840 have been trained during the past one and a half years in basic computer awareness and training on advance levels was continuing in phases. 

Gurgaon, September 24
Owing to the increase in cyber crime in the city, Gurgaon is set to get a police station dealing exclusively in such cases.

The Millennium City will be first in the state to have a dedicated cyber crime police station. Separate staff will be hired. They will be headed by deputy commissioner of police, cyber crime, a new post.

A similar station is scheduled to be set up in Chandigarh. The police station will be state-of -the-art with an underground parking lot and a well-furnished waiting hall. It will be constructed on the lines of the one at Madhuban in Karnal district.

Special computer systems and gadgets and a fleet of ethical hackers will be part of this station.

“Gurgaon has been witnessing a spurt in cyber crime and, unfortunately, the conviction rate is low. It is disturbing to find that the average age of criminals has decreased considerably. Thus, we have decided to come up with this special station. The modalities are being worked out in Chandigarh. A new post of deputy commissioner of police, cyber crime, is likely to be created and the incumbent will be well-versed with information technology,” said a senior police official.

Currently, cyber crime cases are registered at the respective area police stations from where, after preliminary investigation, they are transferred to the cyber crime cell. A victim cannot file the complaint with the cyber crime cell directly.

“The new police station will ease the load on us. If people get direct access to key investigation officials, it will go a long way in encouraging people in registering their complaints and even speed up the investigation and increase the conviction rate. Moreover, with criminals getting hi-tech, we need people with similar skills to deal with them,” added the official.

Sonepat, September 24
Additional District and Sessions Judge of Sonepat Shukaram Pal Singh has rejected anticipatory bail to Mahender Singh, sarpanch of Rabra village, in a case relating to embezzlement in the distribution of old age pension.

On a complaint of Satyavan of the same village, a case against him and a former sarpanch of the village, Om Prakash, was registered on April 14 following the directions of the Inspector-General of Police, Rohtak range, Alok Mittal, in Sadar police station, Gohana.

In the complaint, it was alleged that Mahender Singh and Om Prakash had embezzled lakh of rupees of old age pension raised in the names of deceased persons and of persons reportedly residing outside 
the village.

Satyavan alleged that despite directions from the director-general of the development and panchayat department for taking action against the accused, no action had been taken by the Deputy Commissioner or the police.

Deputy Superintendent of Police of Gohana Yash Pal Khatana said the matter was being investigated by the station house officer of Baroda police station.

District development and panchayat officer Hari Singh Sheoran said sarpanch Mahender Singh had been issued a show-cause notice and the process for his suspension was under process. 

Jhajjar, September 24
A dispute over Rs 2,500 today claimed the life of an elderly woman. The victim was allegedly attacked by her former landlord and his family members at her rented house in Killa Mohalla locality of Bahadurgarh town in the district. Three kin of the woman also sustained injuries in the attack.

The deceased has been identified as Laxmi Verma. The police has registered a case against four persons, including a woman, on the complaint of the victim’s son Hemant.

The police said Laxmi along with her family members had been residing as a tenant in the house of Rajender Singh at Killa Mohalla. She had vacated the house some time ago. Since after, Rajender’s kin was demanding Rs 2,500 from Laxmi who was denying any dues regarding rent.

“Rajender along with his wife Rajwanti and sons Deepak and Harsh reached Laxmi’s house in the morning and demanded Rs 2,500. When Laxmi and her kin resisted their demand, Rajender and his family members started thrashing Laxmi and her sons, Hemant and Nitin,” said the complainant.

Meanwhile, Rajender and his kin pushed Laxmi from the stairs of her accommodation. She died on the spot, while Hemant and Nitin received multiple injuries, the police said. The accused fled from the spot after the incident.

Bahadurgarh City Police SHO Jai Kishan Dahiya said, “We have booked Rajender, his wife Rajwanti and sons Deepak and Harsh under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The investigation is on and the accused will be nabbed soon.” The SHO said the body of Laxmi was handed over to her kin after getting the post-mortem done from the civil hospital.

Rohtak, September 24
The state government has notified that deputy civil surgeons, senior medical officers (SMO) and medical officers (MO) serving with the health department would also enjoy the power of food safety officers (FSO) in districts where the posts of food safety officer were lying vacant or where the workload was more in order to implement the Food and Safety Standards Act-2006.

Dr G.L. Singhal, Drug Controller and Joint Commissioner Food and Drug Administration of Haryana, said since there was a shortage of food safety officers in the state, the medical officers had been assigned the powers of the food safety officer so that there was no violation in the field.

He said Haryana was, perhaps, the first state to take action regarding the sale of infant milk substitute. It had raided the premises of a wholesale distributor of infant milk substitute food products here in July and seized some samples for testing.

The state government had also banned the sale of bottled white fluid used as corrector (eraser) in typed documents and nail polish remover sold in bottle type of container, he said. 

Chandigarh,September 24
The state government has signed memoranda of understating (MoUs) with four power producers for setting up five 51-MW biomass power projects with an investment of Rs 230 crore. Two of these projects are likely to be commissioned soon.

A spokesman of Renewable Energy Department said here today that Haryana was one of the leading states in implementing energy-conservation programmes.

The Energy Conservation Fund had been created for the execution of energy-conservation programmes in the state.

He said a 6-MW hydro project at Dadupur (Yamunanagar), a 2-MW project at Gogripur (Karnal), a 1.4-MW hydro project at Musapur( Karnal) and a 1.4-MW project at Khukni (Karnal) had become operational.

Hisar, September 24
The police recovered 230 cooking gas cylinders from an abandoned well in Kirmara village, near here.

It is suspected that the cylinders had been stolen and dumped there. While 221 cylinders are domestic cylinders of Indane, nine are commercial refills.

On a tipoff the police raided a field and found an abandoned well there which was covered with bushes.

The police has registered a case under the Essential Commodities Act against Pramod, a farmer, and four others. 

Kurukshetra September 24
The Haryana Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (HSGPC-Jhinda group) at a meeting held at Dera Kar Sewa here today decided to launch an agitation to get its demand for a separate SGPC for Haryana fulfilled.

Addressing the meeting HSGPC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda said the process of forming committees would be completed by November 1.

If the demand for a separate SGPC for Haryana was not concede by then, pressure would be built on the Central and state governments by gheraoing the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, he added.

Jhinda alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was an obstacle in the formation of a separate HSGPC

It is worth mentioning here that the Didar Singh Nalvi group has has also demanded a separate SGPC for Haryana.

Chandigarh, September 24
The Women and Child Development Department, Haryana, has released Rs 2.56 crore to the LIC under the “surakshit bhavishya yojna”, a welfare scheme for anganwadi workers and helpers.

Sumita Misra, Director-General, Women and Child Development Department, said here today that under the scheme Rs 83 was in the form of savings and Rs 17 as a risk premium for all anganwadi workers and helpers on investing Rs 100 with the LIC every month. She said funds had been released to benefit 21,186 anganwadi workers and 21,475 helpers from April to September.

In the case of sudden death, Rs 50,000 was provided to her nominee while the accumulated amount on this saving was given with interest on retirement. 

Yamunanagar, September 24
The Haryana Power Engineers Association (HPEA) has demanded a white paper on the proposed merger of the Uttar Haryana and Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigams.

Speaking to the media after presiding over a meeting of the association, president R.S. Dahiya said the state government must spell out the aims and objects behind the proposed merger of the two discoms. He said the appointment of one official for all top four posts seemed to be the first step in that direction. He said the engineer’s association was of the view that while deciding the merger, the government must take all stakeholders, including employees and consumers, into confidence.

He said the association wanted the government to first ensure that the service conditions of engineers and employees was protected. The restructuring of discoms which had been pending since the trifurcation must be carried out immediately as the workload had increased manifold, making the distribution system unmanageable.

He said the executive committee of the association had discussed various problems faced by engineers, including pensionary benefits for retirees, which were not being released in a time-bound manner. The association also demanded that the engineers who had been suspended without any chargesheet for the past six months should be reinstated immediately. There must be separate authority to decide the chargesheet and the appellate authority. The alleged victimisation of office-bearers of association should be stopped and all transfers and postings done as per the transfer policy.

Dahiya said the association had also urged the government to take up the renovation of the first four units of the Panipat thermal plant on a priority basis while the work of Panipat units 9, 10 was taken up by the HPGL.

The allotment of coal for the third unit at the Yamunanagar thermal plant and the proposed gas power station at Faridabad needed to be taken up with the ministry concerned for early execution of these projects. The rotor of unit 2 had been received at Yamunanagar and the unit was likely to be commissioned within a month. The association also said regular technical staff should be deployed at the grid sub-stations of the Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam (HVPN) after training as per the grid code. The work should not be entrusted to casual workers which could harm the costly equipment.

Sirsa, September 24
The District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) will set up 10 more legal aid clinics in Dabwali subdivision of the district.

Harish Gupta, chief judicial magistrate-cum-secretary of the DLSA, said the clinics would be set up at Chautala, Saktakhera, Habuala, Goriwala, Godikan, Jagmalwali, Odhan, Mithri, Kheowali and Kalanwali.

Gupta said lawyers and para-legal volunteers empanelled by the DLSA would provide legal aid to villagers in these clinics free of cost. “The Haryana State Legal Service Authority had increased the income limit of those eligible to get free legal aid from Rs 1 lakh per annum to Rs 1.50 lakh,” said the judge.

Sonepat, September 24
A Haryana Roadways bus fell into a distributary near Barota village on the Sonepat-Gohana road in the district while avoiding collision with a jeep on a bridge late last night.

Bus driver Mukesh and conductor Samunder, who were injured in the accident, were taken to the civil hospital, Gohana. Their conditions were stated to be out of danger.

However, the passengers in the bus escaped unhurt.

The bus was going to Gohana from Sonepat while the jeep was coming to Sonepat.

Jhajjar, September 24
A youth was killed while his friend was injured when the motorcycle they were riding on collided with a truck on the Jhajjar road near Dulhera village in the district on Monday.

The victims has been identified as Mukesh of Chhudani village, while the injured, identified as Rajesh, has been admitted to a private hospital in Delhi where his condition is stated to be critical.

The incident took place when the duo was going towards Jhajjar. The truck driver managed to escape from the spot, leaving the vehicle behind, after the accident. The police has registered a case of rash and negligent driving against the truck driver.