Gurgaon, April 30
Yet another rape rocked the city when a Delhi resident was allegedly raped by her friend and his accomplice and then was dumped on the Sohna-Palwal road late last night.

The woman approached the Gurgaon police today against her friend Devender, a Delhi resident, claiming that he picked her from Sahara Mall on the pretext of dropping her home and then raped her in a moving car along with an accomplice. The police nabbed Devender, a property dealer, from Delhi.

“I had come to Sahara Mall around 6 pm for shopping. Devender called me up and said he was in Gurgaon and was heading for Delhi. He offered to drop me home. He was accompanying by another man whom I didn’t know. That man said he wanted to give an ATM card to his sister who studied in an institution on the Sohna road. They took the car to a secluded spot and raped me turn by turn,” said victim in her complaint.

The victim alleged that after raping her, they dumped her on the road and left.

She managed to reach her home.

Jhajjar, April 30
Top state BJP leaders, including national president of the BJP Kisan Morcha Om Prakash Dhankhar, state chief Ram Bilas Sharma and former chief Krishan Pal Singh Gujjar, along with hundreds of party workers, were arrested by the police near Dujana village on the Jhajjar-Rohtak road here today when they were holding a "padyatra" from Jhajjar to Rohtak seeking bonus of Rs 150 per quintal for wheat crop.

The protesters wanted to hold a demonstration outside the residence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Baapu Park in Rohtak to mount pressure on him for bonus but the police did not let them cross the border of Jhajjar district. The arrested leaders and workers were freed by the police after two hours.

Later, the BJP leaders alleged that the state government was making unsuccessful attempts to suppress the voice of poor farmers who were struggling for earning their livelihood due to anti-farmer policies of the government.

Earlier, some BJP workers gathered at the grain market this morning and lambasted the state government for not announcing bonus for wheat crops.

Dhankhar said the farmers had to bear a cost of Rs 1,400 per quintal for the production of wheat crop while the state government had been giving just Rs 1,350 as MSP which was Rs 50 less than actual cost of production.

"In this situation, the farmers have no other option but to declare a war against the government," said Dhankhar, adding that when the governments of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh can announce Rs 150 per quintal as a bonus to their farmers for wheat crop, why not the Hooda government could do the same.

Ram Bilas Sharma said the government should announce bonus for wheat crops besides implementing the recommendations of the Farmer Commission, Agriculture Income Insurance Policy etc. Former president of state BJP Krishan Pal Singh Gujjar, party national secretary Sudha Yadav, MLA Anil Vij, Munish Grower, Pratibha Suman, Mahipal Dhandha also expressed their views.

Chandigarh, April 30
On January 15, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda received the “Krishi Karman Award” for the best performing state in wheat category from President Pranab Mukherjee.However, three months down the line, Hooda is under attack from different quarters for alleged raw deal to the farmers, particularly in the payment of bonus on wheat.

Close on the heels of the INLD launching a state-wide agitation for prompt payment by the procurement agencies and payment of bonus to farmers, the BKU has trained its guns on Hooda for dilly-dalling on the payment of bonus to the farmers. “The double-speak of the self-proclaimed pro-farmer Hooda government has been exposed on the issue of payment of wheat bonus to farmers,” Gurnam Singh, Haryana BKU president, told The Tribune here today.

In Fact, the BKU had served an utimatum on the Hooda government to pay bonus till May 8 or face a state-wide agitation.”The BKU and other farmers’ organisations would organise a mahapanchayat at Rukhi village on May 8 on the Gohana-Rohtak highway to chalk out future course of action , " Gurnam Singh said hinting at agitation across Haryana.

Claiming that the total per quintal cost had gone to Rs 1613 per quintal and productivity had fallen by around 30 per cent this year , the BKU chief assserted that farmers’ loss was pegged at Rs 263 per quintal.The loss last year was around Rs 25 per quintal, he quipped. The Chief Minister seems to have washed his hands off on the issue of the payment of bonus by merely writing a letter to the Centre, he alleged.

Chandigarh, April 30
Water channels, water-harvesting structures and bricked village lanes have changed the face of Sadalpur village in Adampur block of Hisar. What's more, these development works have been carried out by the villagers themselves. For the second year running, this village has used up to over Rs 1 crore for carrying out development works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).

Similarly, Kuleri village with a strong population of 7,700 persons has used Rs 1.28 crore, the seventh highest fund utilisation in the country under MNREGS, to not only provide livelihood to the villagers but to ensure better living for its people too.

These villages in Hisar are no exception and that's probably why the district has earned the top position when it comes to fund utilisation in the financial year ending March 2013. Of a total of Rs 276.35 crore spent in Haryana, Hisar alone has spent Rs 90.21 crore. In contrast, there are districts which have spent less or a little more than the money spent in Sadalpur or Kuleri villages.

While Faridabad has spent only Rs 1.26 crore, Gurgaon has spent Rs 2.36 crore. In Panchkula, the spending under MNREGS has been Rs 3.46 crore while there are six other districts in the state where the spending under MNREGS has been between Rs 4 crore and Rs 9 crore.

Since fund availability is essentially demand driven under this Act, the poor utilisation of funds by most other districts and the achievement of Hisar were particularly mentioned at the recent meeting of the Deputy Commissioners, chaired by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Later, Hisar Deputy Commissioner Amit Aggarwal gave a presentation of how the district managed to make most of the funds available under MNREGS.

Speaking to The Tribune, Aggarwal said a shelf of works comprising potential works required in the villages of the district was carried out, estimates prepared and the gram panchayats asked to take them up.

"We not only spent funds on internal roads, but focused on convergence works, taking up cleaning of drains and canals and village ponds, thereby not only aiding the other departments, but also ensuring livelihood to the villagers. Our experience is that other than the sowing and harvesting season, a lot of labour is in search of work the rest of the year round. We tapped them to give a facelift to their own villages and they, in turn, got a source of income during their lean months," he explains.

Chandigarh, April 30
In the age of competitive politics, claiming, rather snatching, the credit for the withdrawal of wealth tax on agricultural land within an 8 km municipal radius was not unexpected. Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has simply pulled the rug from under the feet of the Akalis’, who initially highlighted the issue. Union Finance Minister P. Chidambram, too, has given all credit to Hooda and his party for bringing the issue to his attention and gone to the extent of falsifying the Akali claim on the subject on the floor of Parliament.

“Rather than going to the media and saying that the Punjab Chief Minister has written a letter to me (which I never received), you should have picked up the phone and called me. It was Hoodaji who brought the matter to my notice and my government immediately decided to make amends”, Chidambram told Bathinda MP Harsimrat Badal in Parliament.

In this entire exercise while Hooda has emerged the face of the Congress in Haryana, Punjab Congress President Partap Bajwa’s, who too worked for the same has managed to annoy some friends within the party on account of his media managers trying to ascribe all credit for Bajwa alone.

This has reportedly irked Hooda too. In fact, senior officials from Haryana worked overtime to brief the media to ensure that Hooda was not denied credit for the feat.

It was already known that the Haryana Chief Minister had led a delegation of party MPs from Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan to meet the Finance Minister P Chidambaram to seek the withdrawal of wealth tax on agriculture land. The delegation included several ministers, including Perneet Kaur and Manish Tewari, besides Bajwa.

Chidambaram’s statement in Parliament today to announce the withdrawal of wealth tax was well thought out.

He not only had a dig at the Akalis , but also wanted to set the record straight by making a special mention with emphasis that it was Haryana Chief Minister Hooda along with others “including Bajwa”, who took up the matter with him.

The message was aimed at clarifying that it was a collective effort with Hooda in the lead that led to the withdrawal of wealth tax on agricultural land.

Hooda had taken up the issue with the Finance Minister after the INLD, taking a cue from the Akali-BJP alliance in Punjab, demanded the calling of a special session of the Vidhan Sabha to discuss this issue.

The Akali Dal is an alliance partner of the INLD in Haryana. Besides, leaders of the two parties enjoy very close relationship. Hooda played a brilliant stroke and hijacked the issue that had begun to take emotional hue.

Chandigarh, April 30
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has expressed gratitude towards UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for making announcement in Parliament that no wealth tax of any kind will be imposed on agricultural land in the country.

Hooda described it as a historic decision and said now it had once again become clear that interests of the farmers were completely safe in the hands of the Congress government.

With the speech of the Union Finance Minister, it had also become clear that though the intention was never to impose property tax, it got inadvertently imposed due to a Bill passed in 1993. Only from the technical aspects, the wealth tax on agricultural land adjoining the urban areas was imposed. But it could not get the attention of any government since then and continued to be in force, he added.

Hooda said after this issue was raised, a large delegation of about 30 Members of Parliament and public representatives from various states met the Finance Minister and apprised him of the ramification of the entire issue and its adverse effects on the farming community.

The Finance Minister had assured it that the interests of the farmers would be safeguarded at all costs by not levying any wealth tax on agricultural land and amendments, if necessary, would be made to remove the technical hassles in this regard.

MP Deepender Singh Hooda in the Lok Sabha, proposed the amendment to the Finance Bill in Parliament. Apart from Deepender, Congress MPs Harish Chaudhary, Jyoti Mirdha, Partap Singh Bajwa and SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal had also proposed the amendments.

Earlier in his speech in Parliament, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said a delegation comprising Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and various MPs, including Partap Singh Bajwa, Manish Tewari, Preneet Kaur, Deepender Singh Hooda, had met him. He made it clear that he had not received any letter or phone call from Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal regarding the removal of wealth tax.

Chandigarh, April 30
The Congress seems to be projecting Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as its 'farmer face'.

Yesterday's successful meeting of a party delegation led by Hooda with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on the issue of wealth tax on agricultural land is apparently another step in that direction.

The issue first came to limelight when the Income Tax Department issued notices to certain farmers asking them to pay wealth tax on agricultural land. Seeing an opportunity the Akali Dal forcefully raised the issue with the Centre. Punjab Congress leaders also protested.

Sensing that the issue would be very sensitive with the powerful farmer lobby, the Union Government must have realised that it would be difficult to impose wealth tax on agricultural land. But it could not allow the Opposition to walk away with all credit. It was left to Hooda to lead a delegation, which included MPs from Punjab and Haryana, to Chidambaram to 'persuade' him to withdraw the unpopular tax. The success of the meeting snatched an opportunity from the Opposition to make wealth tax a major poll issue.

Earlier, the Prime Minister had made Hooda the head of a working group on farm production. The group included the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Bihar and West Bengal.

The Congress' decision to project Hooda as its farmer face has not been taken overnight. Hooda has worked hard for it. A number of schemes launched by him in Haryana for the farming community went a long way in convincing the high command that Hooda could be an answer to regional straps like Prakash Singh Badal, Om Prakash Chautala, Mulayam Singh and Ajit Singh. After Balram Jakhar, the Congress did not have a proper farmer face.

Hooda implemented many farmer-friendly decisions like interest waiver on cooperative loans, reduction in interest rate from 11 per cent to 4 per cent on short-term crop loans, electricity bills waiver worth Rs 1,600 crore, minimum floor rates for acquisition of land, rehabilitation policy for those whose land is acquired, among others.

Chandigarh, April 30
As many as five statutory towns of Haryana have no slum within their jurisdiction. These are Ambala Cantt., Beri, Kanina, Dharuhera and Hasanpur.

Joint Director, Haryana Census Operations, G. Bapu Ji said slum data had been collected in 75 statutory towns out of the 80 statutory towns of the state. The remaining five statutory towns did not report any slum within their jurisdiction, he added.

He said the housing data as, amenities and assets of the slum households had been collected during household operations conducted in the state between May 1, 2010 to June 15, 2010. According to the data, as many as 3,25,995 households are living in slum areas out of total 70,88,008 households that is 4.60 per cent of statutory towns in Haryana as per 2011 census. 78.1 per cent of slum households are living in permanent houses, 17.7 per cent in semi permanent and only 4.2 per cent are living in temporary or dilapidated structures.

He said 35.1 per cent households are living in one room, 32.1 per cent in two rooms, 17 per cent in three rooms and remaining 15.8 in more than three rooms. 73.2 per cent of slum households are availing facility of drinking water through taps, 92.3 per cent of households having electricity, 80 per cent of households having toilet facility within their premises. Out of the remaining 20 per cent households that is 65,322, 13.6 per cent that is 8878 are using public toilets and 86.4 per cent that is 56,444 are going in the open. Similarly, 73.9 per cent of the households are having separate bathroom facility within their houses. 63.6 per cent of the households are using LPG as a main source of cooking.

Hisar, April 30
A team of the State Vigilance Bureau (SVB) today arrested three officials of the Hafed when they were accepting a bribe of Rs 18,000 from a contractor for clearing his bills.

Sources said Dev Dutt Kamboj, an executive engineer, Virender Chugh, an accountant, and Mohan Lal Goyal, an auditor, had demanded a sum of Rs 18,000 as bribe from Dhanraj, a contractor from Kashi Ka Baas village in Sirsa district.

In his complaint, Dhanraj had alleged that his bills worth Rs 81,000 for the repairs carried out in a godown of the Hafed were pending with the officials for long.

He alleged that while Kamboj and Goyal were demanding Rs 5,000 each as bribe, Chugh wanted Rs 8,000 to clear his file.

Rohtak, April 30
Rajkishan Nain, a photojournalist, has alleged that he has been cheated by an investment company of several lakhs and his two sons implicated falsely by the police in cases of abduction and attempt to murder.

However, the police has described his charges as baseless and claimed that the case had been registered after the sons and relatives of Nain abducted the manager of the firm at gunpoint and attempted to kill him.

Nain (57)of Ajaib village in the district, had claimed that the cases were false as his sons, Ankur and Arjun, and another relative had only contacted Devender Chopra, manager of the firm, to reclaim the amount taken by the firm for investment three years ago.

He said while the manager had accompanied them for talks, the police registered the cases of abduction and attempt to murder against Arjun, Ankur and Devender, on the complaint of the company owner on April 25.

Demanding reinvestigation into the matter, Nain said the matter was regarding the cheating and fraud of Rs 42 lakh.

The police, which ought to have booked the firm owner, registered a case against his sons when they attempted to get an assurance regarding the money taken by them.

He said he had approached the police in March but the case was not registered against the company owner. An application submitted to the Chief Minister on April 6 in this regard resulted in a probe by the CID, which was still under way. Nain said the money was given to the firm between 2009 and 2012.

He also met the IG and the SSP recently but claimed that he had failed to get any satisfactory response. SSP Vivek Sharma, however, claimed that the sons of Nain not only abducted the manager, but also opened fire which resulted in the injuries of an accused.

Three of the six accused have been arrested, he added.

Chandigarh, April 30
Senior officials in the Excise and Taxation Department will now have fixed tenure of 2-3 years.

In fact, this and several other proposals are the part of the new transfer policy of the department for the gazetted officers. Now, a minimum period of two years and a maximum period of three years have been fixed for the posting of officials of the rank of Assistant Excise and Taxation Officers (AETOs), Excise and Taxation Officers (ETOs) and the Deputy Excise and Taxation Commissioners (DETCs), the policy states.

With a view to preventing vested interests at a particular place, an officer promoted from the post of the ETO to the DETC, would not be posted in the same district for at least three years.

The transfer of officers would be effected from May 1 to 31 each year. All transfer applications received by the Excise and Taxation Commissoner (ETC) up to April 15 would be processed within a period of 15 days. While the AETOs and ETOs would apply to the DETC concerned for transfer, the DETCs would directly apply to the ETC. The final transfer orders would be issued after approval of the Excise and Taxation Minister of the Chief Minister.

And to discourage arbitrariness in the transfers, the aggrieved officer would have the right to file a petition before the ETC. The recommendations of the ETC would be kept in mind by the state government before transferring the officer, the policy asserted.

Persons suffering from serious diseases, having more than 70 per cent disability and widows and divorced women officers can be transferred against vacancy by the government by relaxing rules. Similarly, an officer retiring within next one-year may be given the posting of his choice while the officer retiring next year would not be ordinarily transferred.

Sonepat, April 30
After nine years, two accused, Megh Raj and Jai Prakash of Mahra village, were nabbed in a double murder case by the first unit of SIT today.

Disclosing this to mediapersons here, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Balbir Singh said Megh Raj and his brothers Jai Prakash, Jagdish and Anand Swaroop, had attacked Krishan and his brothers, Vinod and Sonu, of the same village with sharp-edged weapons in 2004 when the victims were sitting at their tube- well in the fields.

In this attack, Krishan died on the spot and Vinod succumbed to injuries in the hospital.

On the complaint of Vinod, the DSP said, a case of murder was registered against the accused. Jagdish and Anand Swaroop were arrested by the police, however, Megh Raj and Jai Prakash went underground and evaded their arrest for nine years. Both were declared as proclaimed offenders and most wanted by the police.

The DSP also said the twin murder was a result of an old enmity between two families.

Krishan and Vinod, along with their uncles Ram Kishan and Ganga Swaroop, had murder Dilbag, one of the brothers of Megh Raj in 2000.

Krishan and Vinod were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court and both had come on parole when they were attacked and killed.

Chandigarh, April 30
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed the Haryana Government to keep in abeyance its policy of naming government schools and other institutions after the names of donors.

The directions came on a petition filed by retired headmaster Iqbal Singh. He was seeking the issuance of direction to the Punjab Government to fill up vacant posts of principals of senior secondary schools.

Taking up the matter, the Bench of Acting Chief Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain observed: “The Haryana Government too has a policy of naming government schools and other institutions after the names of the donors, as per newspaper reports.”

The high court has already restrained the Punjab Government from implementing its recent policy on naming its government schools and other public institutions after donors or at their behest.

The Bench had taken suo motu cognisance of newspaper reports on the Punjab Government policy under which the government schools or other public institutions shall be named as per choice of persons donating prescribed amount.

Taking a serious view of the policy, the Bench had observed the policy violated Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The well-established salutary practice in the country was to name public institutions after persons sacrificing their lives for the freedom or undertaking great social service.