Chandigarh, March 30
Pushed into the corner by the Haryana government to buying Raxil 2 per cent DS from Bayer Crop Sciences for seed treatment of wheat, the managing director of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation (HSDC), Ashok Khemka, has placed an order with the multinational fungicide manufacturer for buying 500,000 pouches of the fungicide.

While placing the order with the company, Khemka has put a rider on the purchase. He has asked the company to first register its fungicide for control of the Karnal bunt disease before the commencement of supplies to the corporation. In his order placed to the company for buying five lakh pouches of fungicide at the rate of Rs 55.08 each for a total sum of Rs 2.75 crore, Khemka has said that in case the company failed to get the fungicide registered for treatment of Karnal bunt, it would have to accept full responsibility for all consecutive punitive liabilities otherwise.

Khemka had earlier questioned the decision taken by the high-powered purchase committee of the state government for buying tebuconazole fungicide for treatment of loose smut, flag smut and Karnal bunt diseases in wheat, when the said fungicide was not even registered for controlling Karnal bunt with the Central Insecticides Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) of the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

The issue had been highlighted by The Tribune in these news columns recently. Khemka had refused to buy the fungicide for this year, quoting various irregularities in its purchase. He had also highlighted that the fungicide being sold to Haryana was at rates much higher than at which it was sold to other state governments and their agencies.

However, the Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce and Principal Secretary, Agriculture, had set aside Khemka's concerns and asked him to go ahead with the purchase of the fungicide. The Haryana government claimed that there was no wrongdoing in the purchase of tebuconazol 2 per cent DS for treatment of certified wheat seeds in Haryana. It had claimed that the decision to use it had been taken on the basis of professional recommendation of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, which had recommended that the fungicide cured all three diseases of loose smut, flag smut and Karnal bunt.

Even the manufacturer, Bayer Crop Sciences, had conceded that the fungicide was not registered to treat Karnal bunt, though two agriculture universities -- CCS HAU and Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar -- had found that the molecule was effective in treatment against Karnal bunt.

While placing the order to buy the fubgicide now, Khemka has also laid a condition that the company will supply the fungicide to HSDC at the same rate (per kilogram) at which it supplies to any dealer or distributor in India during the year 2013, and in case of any offer below this rate to a dealer or distributor during this year, the consequent benefits would have to be passed to the HSDC.

The HSDC managing director has also laid a condition that Bayer Crop Sciences will have to offer the benefit of the dealer's margin of Raxil 40 gram pouches to the HSDC, just as it was doing to other distributors and dealers in Haryana. This would have to be passed to the corporation from the original year of supply, i.e. 2010.

We want the government to transfer the subsidy directly to the farmers, which is in tune with the UPA policy. Instead of the Rs 40-crore subsidy on seeds, let them just give us the grant-in-aid on salaries. This will make us competitive and enable us to survive Ashok Khemka, md, Haryana Seed Development Corporation

Chandigarh, March 30
The Haryana Government has asked the state vigilance bureau to conduct an inquiry into the purchase and sale of weedicide for wheat by the Haryana Seed Development Corporation at rates higher than the prevalent market prices.

Sources said a letter to this effect had been sent by the Chief Secretary to the Director General, Vigilance, on the basis of action proposed by the Agriculture Minister following a complaint by Yamunanagar resident and Congress leader Satpal Kaushik.

In his complaint, Kaushik, also a farmer, alleged that the Haryana Seed Development Corporation had bought weedicides during the Rabi season at a price which was Rs 100 more than the prevailing market rate. Consequently, he stated, farmers were deprived of an optimum benefit of the 50-per cent subsidy on weedicides.

"Farmers got a benefit of only Rs 30 to Rs 35 in the purchase of weedicides from the outlet of the corporation. As compared to the market price, the rate of the weedicide purchased by the corporation was already higher. As a result, instead of providing a relief of about Rs 100 or more, the 50-percent subsidy ended up giving a small benefit to farmers," Kaushik said.

The move can create more trouble for corporation's managing director (MD) Ashok Khemka, who has already been held responsible for the poor sale of wheat seeds by board members.

Khemka has also drawn flak from the employees' union for "transferring or charge-sheeting employees ever since he took over as MD" in October last year.

Chandigarh, March 30
Even as the court is hearing a case on the "disqualification" of five HJC (BL)-turned-Congress MLAs, they have opened a new front with their “parent party” by seeking “derecognition” of the political outfit.

Sources said the five MLAs, ministers Rao Narender and Satpal Sangwan, and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Vinod Bhyana, Zile Ram Sharma and Dharampal Chokker, have shot off a representation to the Election Commission of India (ECI), seeking “derecognising” of the HJC (BL) as a political party. A copy of the representation has been marked to the Speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

Sources said the MLAs had taken a plea that the HJC (BL) had merged into the Congress in November 2009, implying thereby that it has ceased to exist. They have claimed that the “merger” of the party had neither been disputed nor had been challenged in any court of law.

This assumes significance since the five MLAs had broken away from the party and declared the “merger” in Chandigarh immediately after the Congress government had been sworn in. This merger was upheld by the then Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chattha. The party supremo and the sole representative of the party, Kuldeep Bishnoi, had filed a disqualification petition against the five MLAs, which was rejected by the Speaker after which he had moved court.

Subsequently, Bishnoi was elected as MP and had resigned from the Assembly. He was replaced by his wife Renuka Bishnoi, who is the only MLA of the party in the 90-member House.

Interestingly, in the recently concluded Budget session, Housing Minister Satpal Sangwan had raised the issue that the HJC had lost its identity as a political party after the merger. However, at this, Renuka Bishnoi had responded by saying that the HJC was recognised by the ECI and she had been elected on the party name, which even had an election symbol and an MP. Also, she spoke on the Budget and on the obituary references on the party name.

This probably has triggered the five MLAs to file a representation seeking derecognising the party, which has already “merged” with the Congress.

“The matter is sub judice. Whatever the MLAs have written to the ECI is illegal and unconstitutional. We have contested two byelections under the same party name and symbol given by the ECI. The MLAs are trying to fool the people by giving such representations while our growing popularity seems to have made the Congress jittery, especially, since we are emerging as a strong alternative to it given the fact that the INLD is virtually headless,” Bishnoi said.

Hisar, March 30
The police has arrested a youth after a divorcee woman, a mother of two children, accused him of raping her.

The woman alleged that the accused, Sharwan, a resident of Rawalwas Khurd village, raped her for several months on the promise of marrying her later.

The woman said the accused married some other woman and started threatening her of making her obscene video public. He had also threatened to kill her.

Sirsa, March 30
Justice Satish Kumar Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today said alternate dispute resolution (ADR) centres for speedy justice at affordable cost were being set up in all the districts of the state.

Justice Mittal, along with his Justice SS Saron and Justice Augustine George Masih, was here to inaugurate a Gramin Nyayalya at Rania and an ADR centre in Sirsa today.

The Gramin Nyayalya at Rania is the second such centre to be set up in Haryana, the first one being at Shahbad in Kurukshetra.

Addressing people at Sirsa, Justice Mittal, who is the executive chairperson of the Haryana State Legal Services Authority (HSLSA), said litigants from 54 villages would benefit from the rural court.

He said there were three types of people in the country. “Those who are aware of their rights and able to approach courts in case of infringements, those who are aware of their rights but do not have the resources to approach the legal authorities in case of any violation and those who are neither aware of their rights nor have the means to protect their rights,” he said.

“All the schemes of the HSLSA aim at addressing the needs of these three classes of people. They aim at ensuring speedy justice to the first category, providing free legal aid to the second category and creating awareness and providing free legal aid to the third category of people,” he said.

The judge said presently, over 600 legal aid clinics were creating awareness among people of Haryana's remote villages and more than 1,500 schools in the state had legal literacy clubs.

He said soon, the HSLSA would start victims’ compensation scheme, under which victims of crimes would get monetary compensation from government funds.

Ellanabad Civil Judge (Junior Division) Deepti will hold sittings in the Gramin Nyayalya for two days in a week.

Nuh (Mewat), March 30
Using their dumper-truck as a weapon yet again, suspected members of the notorious mining mafia crushed an Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) constable to death in the Aravali hill-zone here last night.

IRB constable Pawan Kumar, who was deployed at a check-post on the Nuh-Taudu road to check illegal mining, signaled a dumper-truck headed towards the hills to stop. However, instead of stopping the dumper, the driver allegedly hit Pawan and crushed him to death under the dumper. The driver then fled from the scene.

Pawan Kumar belonged to Karnal district in Haryana and was the eldest among three brothers. He is survived by his wife and three children. Mewat Superintendent of Police Sukhbir Singh said a compensation of Rs 10 lakh would be given to the family members of Pawan from the district police fund.

Police officials maintain that the mining mafia often uses dumper-trucks as weapons to knock down policemen deployed to check illegal mining. Afterwards, they try to get away with minor punishment by claiming that it was an unintentional accident.

Bhiwani, March 30
The police has collected ashes of Shashi, an alleged victim of honour killing, from the local cremation ground and sent them to a Forensic Science Laboratory.

The police is collecting circumstantial evidence against Shashi’s father Satpal Dhankhar, who has been accused of killing his 21-year-old daughter at Serla village on Thursday because she married a boy of her choice against his wishes.

Bhiwani SP Simardeep Singh said Satpal had confessed his crime before the police. Satpal had told the police that he had strangulated Shashi to death and cremated her body and told villagers that she had died of electrocution. As confessions before the police are not admissible as evidence in the court of law, the police is collecting evidences.

“We are confident that we’ll collect enough evidences to prove the accused guilty in the court,” the SP said. “We will also get the electric iron tested in a laboratory to ascertain if there was a short circuit as the accused had first told the police that his daughter had died of electrocution,” he said.

Sonepat, March 30
After addressing the grievances of residents of various wards of Sonepat town and looking into allegations of embezzlement of funds for cleaning sewer lines by officials of the public health department, HPCC panchayati raj cell general secretary Vinod Dhankhar has lodged a written complaint in this regard to Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda.

According to Dhankhar, the MP has asked Sonepat Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Aggarwal to inquire into the complaints.

In the complaint, Dhankhar has pointed out discrepancies while cleaning of the sewer lines in various areas of the town.