Chandigarh, November 23
Fighting with its back to the wall against the backdrop of senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka’s orders on DLF-Robert Vadra land deals, the Hooda Government, as part of its image makeover exercise, today effected a major reshuffle transferring 25 IAS officers.

The state government will have a new Director-General of Public Relations and new Director-General of the Town and Country Planning Department and the Managing Director of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC). Besides, five of the seven 1987 batch IAS officers, recently promoted as Financial Commissioners, have been given postings.

Sudhir Rajpal, Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon, will be the Director-General, Information, Public Relations and Cultural Affairs, replacing Anand Mohan Sharan -- a development being seen as the fallout of the bad publicity to the Hooda Government in the aftermath of DLF-Robert Vadra deals.

The Department of Town and Country Planning, recently in the eye of the storm for speedy approval of the change of land use (CLU) for lands purchased by Robert Vadra, will now be headed by Anurag Rastogi, currently posted as the Excise and Taxation Commissioner, as Director-General TC Gupta, current incumbent, has been elevated as the Principal Secretary, Food and Supplies Department besides being Secretary, Cell for the Proper Utilisation/Disposal of Government Property and Nodal Officer for Monitoring CM’s announcements.

Th HSIIDC, which was headed by Rajiv Arora, who is now on a Central deputation as the Joint Secretary (Commerce), will be headed by Tarun Bajaj, presently posted as MD of the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam.

The charge of Additional Chief Secretary (Cooperation) has been taken from Krishna Mohan and given to Shakuntla Jakhu, who was handling the Food and Supplies Department.

Similarly, Hardeep Kumar, Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (FCPS), will also handle the Animal Husbandry Department. Ram Niwas, FCPS, Local Urban Bodies, will swap his posting with P Raghvendra Rao, FCPS, Development and Panchayats Department. Shashi Bala Gulati will be the new officer on Special Duty, Manpower Planning and Secretary, Rajya Sainik Board, Panchkula. Transport Commissioner Amit Jha, on promotion, will be the new FCPS of the Fisheries Department. Sumita Mishra, Director-General of Women and Child Development, will hold the additional charge of the Transport Commissioner.

SN Roy will be the new FCPS of the Medical Education and Research, while Avtar Singh, currently posted as the Director-General, Technical Education, will be the FCPS of the Environment Department.

Hafed Managing Director and Director-General, Sports and Youth Affairs Anil Malik will be the new Excise and Taxation Commissioner. Ashok Yadav will now head Hafed in place of Anil Malik. The post held by Yadav -- Director General, Social Justice and Empowerment, will be held as additional charge by Mohinder Kumar, Secretary to the Governor.

SK Goyal, Special Secretary, Home-I Department, has been posted as Special Secretary, Irrigation Department and Administrator, CADA, against vacant posts.

Anurag Agarwal, Managing Director, Haryana Power Generation Corporation, has been posted as Managing Director, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam, and Special Secretary, Power Department and Director General, Power Reforms, Haryana, in addition to his present duties vice Tarun Bajaj.

Rajbir Singh, Director-General and Special Secretary, Food and Supplies Department and Managing Director, CONFED, goes as Special Secretary, General Administration Department, relieving Vineet Garg of the said charge. He has also been appointed as Special Secretary, Secretariat Establishment and Monitoring and Coordination Departments vice Amneet P Kumar.

Ramesh Krishan, Joint Secretary, Cooperation, Public Works (Building and Roads) and Architecture Departments, has been posted as Joint Secretary, Home-I Department vice S K Goyal.

Rajiv Ranjan, Director, Environment, Haryana and Joint Secretary, Environment Department, has been posted as Joint Secretary, Finance Department, against a vacant post. Nitin Kumar Yadav, Director, Supplies and Disposals, Haryana, Managing Director, HARTRON, and Joint Secretary and Director, Electronics and Information Technology, Haryana, has been posted as Director and Joint Secretary, Development and Panchayats, Haryana and Director and Joint Secretary, Rural Development Department against vacant posts.

Amneet P Kumar, Joint Secretary, Secretariat Establishment and Monitoring and Coordination Departments, has been posted as Joint Secretary, Finance Department, against a vacant post.

Vivek Atrey, who is set to be elevated to the IAS, will be the Director, Supplies and Disposals, Managing Director, HARTRON and Joint Secretary and Director, Electronics and Information Technology, Haryana vice Nitin Kumar Yadav.

Police reshuffle
The Haryana Government has also issued posting and transfer orders of three IPS officers. SS Deswal, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Telecom, has been posted as ADGP (Crime).Puran Kumar, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as SP (Crime) with additional charge of SP (Telecom). Pankaj Nain, awaiting posting orders, has been posted as Assistant Inspector General, (Administration)

Gurgaon, November 23
Two persons, owner and driver of a private ambulance, were today found murdered in their vehicle near Euro International School in Sector 10 here.

The victims have been identified as Bijender Singh, owner of the ambulance, and his driver Rajinder, who had reportedly gone to bring a patient late last night.

Sources said a watchman saw the two men lying in the ambulance in the wee hours but it was only after dawn that he saw blood near the vehicle and called the police.

The duo had been brutally beaten and had sustained severe head injuries. Bijender's wife told the police that Rajinder had come to their house along with a few men saying he had to take the ambulance to bring a man who had fallen from a roof. The duo left immediately.

The police said mobile phones of the victims were missing from the spot.

They seemed to have brutally beaten up and prima facie head injuries had led to their death, said an official. “We are currently looking for those who came to Bijender’s house,” he said.

Gurgaon, November 23
The row over the tampering of MBBS exam answersheets of Sahil Lal, a first-prof student at the PGIMS, Rohtak, seems to be much deeper than what meets the eye.

Preliminary investigation made by the PGIMS authorities had indicated that Sahil’s answersheets of physiology and biochemistry exams had been tampered with prima facie.

The heads of the physiology and biochemistry departments at the PGIMS were the conveners for the respective exams. Sahil’s father, Dr Purshotam Lal, chairman of the Metro group of hospitals, also happens to be a member of the Board of Governors of the Medical Council of India (MCI).

Inquiries made by The Tribune revealed that the head of the physiology department at the PGIMS had got the coveted membership of the PG medical education committee of the MCI.

The head of the biochemistry department at the PGIMS could not be made a MCI committee member due to a pending inquiry but her husband, also a senior faculty member at the PGIMS, was made a member of the MCI’s PG medical education committee.

Gurgaon, November 23
With the Haryana government converting 34,793 hectares, which is a sizeable share of the Aravali Forest, into agricultural land, the concrete jungles of Gurgaon and neighbouring areas are bound to choke further.

It appears to be an attempt to pave the way for future construction in an area which should have ideally been deemed forest land or open space.

The area has been included in the agricultural zone. With this, over 25 activities, including farmhouses, light industry, banquet halls, dairy, poultry and horticulture, will be allowed.

Almost all agricultural zone activities are non-forestry activities and are suitable only for agricultural land.

Giving this area for agricultural purposes would open options for owners to seek conversions and start commercialisation.

Many of the currently allowed activities are unlikely to ever get forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act.

City residents have opposed the conversion of land as Gurgaon will be adversely affected by this. Any more reduction in its sole lung would create serious environmental issues, they feel.

“We are already a concrete jungle and the Aravalis are also being encroached upon, with many builders having already bought land there. The plan should move the forest land category out of the agricultural zone, which allows a variety of non-forest activities, and put it into a separate and permanent forest and water recharge zone, in which no construction of any kind or farmhouses are allowed,” reads a letter sent by residents to government.

The residents have also demanded making the list of land owners public to justify that they are farmers and not prospective realtors.

area under various zones
The total area of the Development Plan comprising 45 controlled areas is about 45,687 hectares. The break-up of the area under various zones is as follows:

Area under proposed urbanisation: 5,600 hectares.
Area under agriculture aone (including forest land, village abadis and existing structures: 34,793 hectares
Area under water recharge zone: 340 hectares
Area under natural conservation zone: 4,563 hectares
Area under existing town and abadi (inside proposed urbanisation): 391 hectares
Grand Total: 45,687 hectares

Fatehabad, November 23
The district administration does not find any fault of the school authorities at Khai village of Ratia in the alleged removal of a 13-year-old rape victim and her two sisters from the school.

In reply to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)’s notice, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Rajiv Rattan, who is officiating as Deputy Commissioner during the training period of ML Kaushik, said inquiries had revealed that the three girls had sought their school leaving certificates, as they wanted to enroll themselves in Bora village school, being nearer to their home.

Taking note of a report, “Rape victim’s father wants all 3 girls back in school”, published in The Tribune on October 16; the NHRC had issued a notice to the district authorities on October 19 seeking their reply within four weeks.

The reply of the authorities based on the reports of inquiries conducted by the SDM, Ratia, the District Education Officer, Ratia, and the Child Protection Officer for their reply.

With the inquiry reports, three identical separate applications written by the three sisters in their own hands on October 6 were attached which said they wanted their SCLs so that they could get admission to another government school in Bora.

However, the victim’s father had alleged that his daughters were forced to write applications for their SLCs.

Jind, November 23
Work at several ITIs across the state was hampered today due to a strike by the ITI Contractual Instructors Welfare Association against the sacking of the president of the association on Thursday.

The association launched the dharna at the ITI, Jind, till the withdrawal of the sack orders and the acceptance of its other demands.

“We are upset with the decision of the principal of the ITI, Jind, who passed the order of termination of the job contract of Manoj Jangra, president of the association, yesterday without any ground and in violation of norms. It is victimisation of an employee who dared to raise his voice against the discriminatory policy of the authorities,” said a spokesperson of the association.

He said instructors of at least 20 ITIs in Rohtak, Jind, Sonepat, Sirsa, Jhajjar and Fatehabad had gone on strike today in protest against the move and joined the dharna launched here.

He said the dharna would continue till the authorities withdrew the sack order and accepted its demands which included the removal of anamolies in their wages and provision of reservation of jobs for the students passing out from the ITIs in the state.

He said the authorities perhaps wanted to teach the association a lesson after the demand raised by it appeared in a section of the media on Thursday.

It is revealed that 80 per cent of the instructors in about 131 ITIs in the state are working on a contract basis at present.

Chandigarh, November 23
The Haryana Town and Country Planning Department has approved a policy for grant of permission for parking in controlled areas.

A spokesman of the department said here today that there was no policy in the department for grant of change of land use(CLU) permission exclusively for parking purposes in the controlled areas. With a view to providing more parking space in big projects attracting vehicular traffic, visitors and workers, a policy for grant of permission for parking in agricultural zone or transport and communication zone adjacent to the CLU granted area or SEZ had been approved.

He said under the policy, the minimum area requirement for off- site parking would be 2000 square metres.The project proponent was required to submit detailed justification in this regard duly showing the calculation in respect of workers and visitors and parking requirement

The site should be adjacent to or within a 0.5 km radius from the boundary of CLU-granted area or the SEZ. The CLU-granted area should be either put to use or CLU or SEZ permission should be valid The guide map showing the location of the site in relation to the main CLU granted area or SEZ along with geographical features should be submitted to enable identification of the land. The project proponent would also submit his proposal for transportation of workers and visitors from the parking area to the main CLU-granted area or SEZ. 

Faridabad, November 23
City Mayor Ashok Arora today assured the protesting employees of the Municipal Corporation to take up their demand in the next meeting of the House.

The employees, who have been on a dharna from the past more than a month, demanded smooth functioning of the accounts department of the MC.

Rattan Lal Rohilla, general secretary of the Municipal Corporation Employees’ Federation, however, said the ongoing agitation on the issue would continue until concrete action was initiated to improve the functioning of the department.

Meanwhile, the employees' relay dharna outside the MC headquarters here entered its 32nd day today.

Arora said the accounts department would be computerised and vacant posts would be filled.

The federation alleged that the department had not done “bank reconciliation” of taxes deposited by people through cheques for several years. It further alleged that the MC had not carried out the reconciliation of the employees’ share of provident funds deposited with it for more than a decade. The department follows a system of “single entry” instead of “double entry” accounting system.

Rewari, November 23
Additional District and Sessions Judge Ajay Tewatia has sentenced Shri Chand, his two brothers, Shanker Lal and Pramod, as well as his son Vipin Kumar to life imprisonment in the murder case of a youth, Lala, here on February 10, 2012.

The Judge has also imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on each of the four convicts.

According to the prosecution, following an altercation at a marriage party here, the accused, all residents of local Qutubpur colony, thrashed Lala to death.

Sirsa, November 23
The police today claimed to have unearthed a racket of inter-state arms suppliers by arresting two youths with four illicit pistols and 21 cartridges.

The police identified the accused as Satwant of Rania and Surender of Shanti Nagar in Sirsa town.

A police party stopped the accused’s motorcycle and seized these arms and ammunition during search.