Sirsa, November 29
After reviewing the law and order situation in the morning, the authorities in Sirsa today lifted completely the curfew they had clamped on the town after Saturday’s Dera clash.

“Since the situation is normal in Sirsa, the curfew has been lifted,” said deputy commissioner J Ganesan. He, however, added that prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC would remain in force in the district.

After 36 hours of complete curfew clamped on Saturday, the authorities had started giving relaxation in it from 6 am to 9 pm since Monday and the night curfew was in force.

Hundreds of local residents participated in the peace march organised by the Nagrik Parishad here today. The schools, colleges and other educational institutions have been closed till November 30.

The police is under pressure from forces opposed to the Dera Sacha Sauda to arrest those responsible for Saturday’s violence.

Jathedar Balwant Singh Nandgarh of Takht Damdama Sahib, one of the five Sikh high priests, today demanded the arrest of those responsible for the violence.

Speaking to mediapersons at Gurdwara Nirmalsar Sahib in Sirsa, where he had come to inquire about the health of SGPC member Sant Gurmeet Singh Tilokewala, who was injured in Saturday’s violence and shifted here last night from Chandigarh, Nandgarh said he would attend a meeting of Sikh organisations in Sirsa tomorrow to decide the course of action if the police failed to arrest the culprits.

J Ganesan also met Tilokewala.

Talking to mediapersons in the local gurdwara, Sukhwinder Singh Khalsa, state president of the Guru Granth Sahib Satkar Sabha, said they had served an ultimatum to the authorities to arrest all dera followers responsible for Saturday’s violence by November 30.

The police had booked around 2,000 followers of Dera Sacha Sauda, including 13 persons by name.

Sirsa, November 29
Dera Sacha Sauda, which is in the thick of controversy over the recent violence in Sirsa, is in favour of an amicable settlement on all issues with its detractors.

This was stated by Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh while responding to questions from mediapersons during a congregation held last night to mark the 121st birth anniversary of Shah Beparwah Mastana, founder of the dera.

Mediapersons posed their questions by giving written slips to a person manning the dais, who read them out to the dera chief and he responded from his throne-like pedestal.

He said the dera did not have any issue with any community, but he alleged that some lumpen elements had been misusing the name of religion to make mischief.

“A large number of people belonging to the Sikh community follow the tenets of Dera Sacha Sauda,” the chief claimed. He said he had never uttered a word that could hurt members of any community, but controversies were repeatedly thrust upon the dera by mischievous elements. He said his routes were being disrupted by these elements to create trouble.

The dera chief claimed that his followers believed in doing constructive work for the welfare of humanity and did not want any feud with anyone. He said the dera had taken several initiatives and even invited the media to resolve the issue, but nothing had come out of it.

The dera chief repeated that if people could proffer a way to end the impasse, the dera was ready for that.

Responding to a question about the dera’s political activities, he challenged anyone to prove if he had ever given a call to support a particular political party. He cited the example of the recent elections in Punjab when about 300 candidates approached him for “blessings” and he gave equal treatment to all.

The dera chief clarified that the political affairs wing of the dera was founded by the devotees and he or the dera had nothing to do with its activities.

I have never uttered a word that can hurt members of any community, but controversies are repeatedly thrust upon the dera by mischievous elements. The dera does not have any issue with any community, but some lumpen elements have been misusing the name of religion to make mischief.
— Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, Dera Sacha Sauda chiefh

Chandigarh,November 29
The Haryana Government has proposed to make legal making the transfer of licence from one coloniser to another for the development of residential and commercial complexes.

The coloniser has to pay administrative charges @ 10 per cent of the prescribed fee for such licences to the Town and Country Planning Department, stated a draft notification issued by SS Dhillon, Principal Secretary, Town and Country Planning Department.

An amendment to the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Rules, 1976, was being brought about.

Under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (Amendment) Rules, 2012, a coloniser could transfer the licence with the approval of the Director, Town and Country Planning Department, by making an application along with the requisite fee.

After in-principle approval by the Director, the proposed transferee shall submit the documents and fulfil the terms and conditions laid down in the approval letter within 90 days .The Director may extend this time limit by 30 days.

“If the documents are not submitted or the terms and conditions are not fulfilled within the time limit, the in-principle approval shall lapse and the administrative charges deposited by the applicant shall be forfeited,” the notification said.

New Delhi, November 29
Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath today announced that the government would develop the Regional Rapid Rail Transit System (RRRTS) in the National Capital Region in a phased manner.

In the fist phase, the RRRTS would be developed in three corridors -- Delhi-Panipat, Delhi-Alwar and Delhi-Meerut -- with an estimated cost of Rs 72,000 crore. In the second phase, the Delhi-Bahadurgarh-Rohtak corridor that would be extended up to Hisar and Delhi-Shahadara-Baraut in Uttar Pradesh corridor would be taken, he said.

This decision was taken at a National Capital Region (NCR) Board meeting held here today. The meeting was attended by Nath, the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Transport Minister of Delhi, Ramakant Goswami, State Minister to Chief Minister (Protocol), Uttar Pradesh, Abhishek Mishra, and Minister of State Wildlife, S. P. Yadav, in Uttar Pradesh and a representative of the Rajasthan government.

Briefing the media after meeting, Nath said the feasibility report of the RRRTS in the NCR region had been conducted with a view to de-congest Delhi so that people could opt to reside in the NCR cities. "If better transport facility is provided in the NCR, people can easily commute long distances in the region," he said.

Haryana Chief Minister said he demand an extension of the proposed Delhi-Bahadurgarh-Rohtak corridor up to Hisar in the first phase, to which the Centre agreed.

He said that the North, South and East sides of Delhi had been included in the first phase of the RRRTS, but the west side up to Hisar-Rohtak was left out.

Kamal Nath said high-speed trains on these corridors would be of high quality and run at a speed of 160 km per hour. The Delhi-Panipat corridor would be 111 km long and have 12 stations. The Delhi-Alwar Corridor would be 180 km long and have 19 stations. The Delhi-Meerut corridor would be 90 km long. The corridors would carry five lakh commuters daily.

He said the Delhi-Faridabad-Palwal RRTS corridor would be taken up in the second phase. 

Chandigarh, November 29
Less than four months after the Punjab and Haryana High Court found faults with the preliminary HCS (Executive) examination and deferred the main written examination, the Haryana Public Service Commission today agreed in principle to constitute an experts’ committee.

As the case came up for resumed hearing before a Division Bench of the High Court, the HPSC said it would constitute subject-wise expert committees, and examine all representations by the petitioners and other candidates. More than 136 representations were submitted to the commission after the publication of the answer keys, besides 151 received earlier. The HPSC agreed 40 questions had been found to be wrong.

A Single Bench of the High Court on August 30 had ruled that the commission had created much confusion by not making public the answer keys. The orders came on a bunch of 21 petitions filed by Jitender Kumar and others against the commission.

Allowing the petitions, the Single Bench had also directed the HPSC to constitute a committee of experts to consider 151 representations received by the commission regarding the questions.

Directing the HPSC to publish the answer key of the preliminary examination, Justice Augustine George Masih had also asked the commission to call for representations from the candidates within a reasonable time before referring these to the experts’ committee.

Subsequently, an appeal against the orders were filed before a Division Bench.

Sirsa, November 29
The prohibitory orders notwithstanding, the Haryana Janhit Congress has already started preparations for its December 2 Jan Samarthan maha Rally in Sirsa. A huge pandal over 20 acres is under way in the Dasehra grounds on the bypass road in Sirsa.

Devi Lal Manjhu, a cousin of HJC supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi, said the he HJC has hired two helicopters - one for bringing leaders and the other for showering flower petals on the rally.

The party had hired a special train named “Janhit Express” with 18 coaches for the participants.

The train will start from Rewari at 4.35 reach Sirsa by 10.30 in the morning after brief stopovers at Kosli and Charkhi Dadri. 

Chandigarh, November 29
The State Election Commission, Haryana, has issued the programme for conducting panchayat byelections to fill casual vacancies of 256 panches, 19 sarpanches , nine members of panchayat samitis and two Zila Parishads including the second general election of sarpanch and panches of gram panchayat, Samalakha in Kurukshetra district.

State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir said here today that nominations could be filed from December 4 to 6, Scrutiny would be done from 10 am to 4 pm on December 7 and withdrawal up to 4 pm by December 10.

The work of preparation of lists of contesting candidates and allotment of symbol for elections would be done immediately after the expiry of the period of withdrawal of candidature on December 10.

He said polling, if required, would be conducted from 8 am to 4 pm on December 16 and votes would be counted at the polling station immediately after the close of polling.

Gurgaon, November 29
Tension is brewing at a solid waste management plant in Bandhwari as the plant operator has hired bouncers to‘inform’ the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG) about the ‘erractic’ behaviour of drivers.

Trouble began in the plant which deals with garbage management of Gurgaon and Faridabad when the plant operator and drivers of garbage carrying vehicles had a fight over the alleged dumping of non-recyclable loose soil and plastic bags.

Officials of the corporation say that the plant operator has told them about the trouble and ‘security’ measures taken by him. The operator has alleged that since sanitation agencies are paid according to the weight of the garbage per vehicle, the drivers put loose soil in the trucks to increase the weight.

“The operator says that the garbage brought by drivers contains articles that are heavy and non-recyclable and harmful for the machines. In a letter, he has said the drivers roughed him up when he denied them entry. He claims to have been left with no option but to get bouncers as he expects a Maruti-like violence here. We will look into the matter and take action,” said an MCG official.

The truck drivers have, meanwhile, held the operator responsible and accused him of getting them roughed up by bouncers.

“The plant is in a mess and most of the times it not working. All we do is wait outside. We don’t bring any soil. He is underpaying us. Now he has got local goons who threaten us and rough us up and damage vehicles. We have also approached the MCG and if things don’t work out, will go on strike,” said the driver’s representative.

Gurgaon, November 29
All Powergrid substations will be run unmanned by 2013. The functioning of devices and equipment at the substations would be observed through cameras, which would be managed remotely by the National Transmission Asset Management Centre at Manesar.

“Having eight persons per substation is a waste of human resources,” said RN Nayak, CMD, Powergrid, while addressing the IEEMA’s international conference on “HV Surge Arresters Technology and Applications” organised jointly with the CBIP and Powergrid here.

Nayak assured all help for indigenous manufacture of new products and technology and advised the industry to manufacture line-arresters and MOV devices domestically in the coming years.

Nayak maintained line-arresters were urgently needed in the transmission lines in north Bengal, evacuating power from the North-Eastern states.

Appreciating the manufactures for developing the 1,200 kV system in India, Nayak maintained that India needed more technologies to be indigenously manufactured.

Surge-arrester is equipment for safe and reliable operation of an electrical power system. It plays an important role in limiting switching and lightning surges on main equipment like transformers, reactors and circuit breakers etc by diverting these surges to the ground.

JG Kulkarni, president, IEEMA, spoke about the importance of surge-arresters in modern India. He pointed out that the Indian electrical industry had developed a good global image over the years.

Prof Volker Hinrichsen, chairman of the surge arresters technical committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission, Geneva, delivered the keynote address.

The audience included professionals from industry, utility engineers, developers and international experts.

Hisar, November 29
Officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) detected 2,822 cases of theft of electricity during October, raising the total number of thefts detected during the current financial year to 14,069. The number of cases of theft of power detected during October is highest during the current financial year.

A DHBVN spokesman said here yesterday that 2,822 cases of theft were detected during raids on 10,788 premises last month and a penalty to the tune of Rs 8.64 crore was imposed on the erring consumers. The total amount of the penalty imposed on the consumers involved in malpractices during this fiscal year was Rs 39.33 crore.

He said 14 special teams were raised to detect theft of electricity. by raising for the purpose. The teams checked 1,757 suspected meters in the area under the jurisdiction pf the DHBVN and detected 548 cases of theft of electricity while 200 meters were sent to the meter testing labs. In most of the cases the meters were found tampered with and cases of theft of power were framed against the consumers concerned. During the checking, the teams found 112 defective meters, 32 cases of illegal sale of electricity and 159 cases of unauthorized extension of load. The teams imposed a penalty of Rs 4.16 crore on the erring consumers.

The spokesman said the highest number of cases (3698) of theft of electricity was detected in Hisar during this financial year, followed by Faridabad (3048), Gurgaon (2846), Bhiwani (2,752), Sirsa (904), Narnaul (422) and Rewari (399).

Chandigarh, November 29
The Haryana Finance Department has directed the head of departments (HoDs) to ensure that in case of transfer of funds to the beneficiaries, the Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) should allot a unique code to the payee through the online system and submit bill for the payment through the electronic payment system.

A spokesman of the department said whenever funds were to be drawn from the treasuries the same needed to be transferred directly to the beneficiary and financial rules did not allow parking of such funds anywhere in between for any duration of time.

However, in cases where due to some extreme circumstances the procedure of operation of a bank account could not be done away with, a detailed proposal should be sent to the Finance Department for opening or continuing operation of bank account. Thus, only those bank accounts would be allowed to operate in which necessary permission from the Finance Department has been taken.

He said some departments were still operating bank accounts in the name of the head of the department (by designation) or in the name of DDO (by designation) for which permission had never been granted by the Finance Department and such accounts were being used to transfer funds to the beneficiaries.

The method adopted in such cases was that the funds were drawn from the treasuries and deposited in such bank accounts being operated by the department. Further, disbursement from these accounts was either by issue of cheques or demand drafts, he added. This method, he said was not appropriate and needed to be stopped with immediate effect.

He said all the HODs had been directed to comply with these instructions strictly otherwise the HOD or DDO concerned would be held responsible for the lapse. 

Rewari, November 29
Shopkeepers of Katla Bazar observed a total strike today in protest against the looting of about Rs 2 lakh by three armed miscreants from Raman Kumar last evening.

Ashok Garg, Ram Chander, Arvind Gupta and other prominent leaders of the Traders’ Association announced that the traders’ strike in Katla Bazar would continue till the culprits who looted raman Kumar were arrested and the entire money was recovered.

Expressing solidarity with the traders of Katla Bazar, Ashok Yadav, president of the Grain Dealers Assocaiation, New Grain Market, and Suresh Jain, president of the Kiryana Association, said the two markets would also observe a complete hartal tomorrow.

INLD legislator Rameshwar Dayal, Rewari district INLD chiefs (rural and urban) Sunil Chaudhary and Manish Charaya also expressed solidarity with the agitating Katla Bazar traders.