Chandigarh, July 23
To enable the states to have more funds for development work, Haryana strongly advocated a hike in the total divisible pool of central taxes to 50 per cent before the 14th Finance Commission, here, today. The state also made a strong case for rewarding fiscally disciplined states, while seeking a revision of the weightage given to various parameters.

After meeting Finance Commission Chairman Dr YV Reddy, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the state had made its recommendations in view of the burden on the states due to central schemes and legislations and increasing investment in health, power and social welfare sectors.

“We have urged the Commission to revise the weightage of four parameters of population, fiscal capacity distance, area and fiscal discipline. Also, the Commission should use data from the latest census instead of the 1971 Census. We have suggested that the weightage to population be raised from 25 to 40 per cent and fiscal discipline from 17.50 to 25 per cent. Similarly, the percentage of fiscal capacity distance should be decreased from 47.5 to 20 per cent and that of area be increased from 10 to 15 per cent,” he said.

Hooda said due to the non-implementation of the General Sales Tax (GST), the state was suffering a loss of Rs 3,000 crore this year, which would, after six to seven years, grow to Rs 5,500 crore per year. He said the tax collection this year would increase by 14 per cent as compared to that of the last financial year.

He said Haryana would have actually been a revenue surplus state had it received its Central Sales Tax (CST) compensation of Rs 5,000 crore. The Centre owed this amount to Haryana for loss caused from the non-implementation of the GST.

“Presently, we have a revenue deficit of .60 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). We would have achieved the target even if the CST had not been reduced from 4 to 2 per cent,” explained Principal Secretary, Finance, Rajan Gupta. He added that Haryana had achieved the target of keeping its fiscal deficit below 3 per cent of GSDP since 2010-11.

At 16.65, Haryana’s outstanding debts, too, are well within the limit of 22.9 per cent of GSDP limit, implying that the state government has the capacity to pursue any development agenda it sets for itself while the tax-GSDP ratio is gradually increasing.

On grant-in-aid, the state government has suggested that it should be replaced with direct devolution of taxes. Also, there should be a formula for grant-in-aid. The 13th Finance Commission had given Rs 4,200 crore as grant-in-aid, Hooda added.

Hooda also urged the Commission to look afresh at the formula evolved by the 13th Finance Commission under which allocation to the states decreased with the increasing per capita income. He pointed out that even though Haryana had the highest per capita income in the country, barring Goa and Sikkim, 60 per cent of its population continued to be dependent upon agriculture and allied activities. Their per capita income had not grown as much. By reduced allocation on account of higher average per capita income of the state, a vast majority of deserving population has been put to a great disadvantage.

Chandigarh, July 23
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said today that the results of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) showed that Gujarat had fallen in development while Haryana had marched ahead.

“I feel happy even when a state other than Haryana progresses . But such claims should be based on facts and the NSSO has shown the real picture,” he said here today.

Asked what advice he would like to offer to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Hooda, taking a dig at the Punjab government, promptly remarked: “Before that, I would like to advise Punjab. I feel bad that the state where I was born is lagging behind. It should come up.”

When he was asked to comment on the allegation levelled by the Opposition that notices have been sent to some farmers for recovery of loans, Hooda said banks would send notices to get back their loans, but his government had decided that neither the land of such farmers would be auctioned nor would they be put behind the bars.There were other ways to make recovery, he added.

Reacting to reports of some children falling sick after consuming iron and folic acid tablets, Hooda said these tablets did not suit children.

About New Chandigarh being developed by Punjab adjacent to Chandigarh, Hooda said Chandigarh itself being a brand name should not be impersonated.

He questioned as to why Mullanpur should not retain its original name adding that when Haryana developed Panchkula, it did not change its name. Similar would be the case of Pinjore and Kalka if these were further developed. It would not be ethical to name Mullanpur as New Chandigarh. 

New Delhi, July 23
The Delhi High Court today extended the interim bail granted to former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala till August 12 and set up a medical board to assess his health before granting him further relief.

Justice Siddharth Mridul set up the medical board comprising doctors from the AIIMS on a plea by CBI counsel Rajdeepa Bahura.

Sentenced to a 10-year jail term on January 22, 2013, in a scam relating to the recruitment of 3,032 JBT teachers in 1999-2000 when he was the Chief Minister, the INLD chief has been on bail since May 21 on medical grounds. He underwent a surgery for getting a pacemaker implanted. The high court has been extending his bail time and again since then.

Chautala today submitted his medical report from the private hospital where he is undergoing treatment. Upon this, the CBI sought a medical board to examine the report.

A CBI court here also sentenced his son, Ajay, to 10-year imprisonment in the case following which they were lodged in Tihar jail. In all, the CBI court had convicted and sentenced 55 accused in the case. Chautala has come to the HC, challenging the trial court verdict.

Karnal, July 23
The Haryana BJP today slammed the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for an inordinate delay in completion of the Panipat-Jalandhar six-laning project and considered the executing company and the government responsible for more than 100 deaths in accidents on the highway in the past 18 months.

The project has been running 22 months behind the schedule and workers of the BJP will have one-day fast on July 27 to press the demands for a compensation of Rs10 lakh and employment for next of kin of the accident victims and scrapping of toll till the project is completed, party secretary Chander Prakash Kuthriya said.

“We will file a PIL on July 30 seeking compensation for the families of accident victims,” he said.

The work on the Rs 2,747.55-crore Panipat — Jalandhar six-laning project which commenced on May 11, 2009 was to be completed by November 11, 2011.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 13 imposed a penalty of Rs 67 crore on Soma Isolex Rollways for the delay in completion of the project which to be paid in the next three weeks. Out of Rs 67 crore, the company has to pay Rs 60 crore while the rest was to be paid by its director.

Ridiculing the government for citing “ban on mining” as reason for the delay, Kathuria said if this was the reason than why the works had not been hit in Rohtak, Panipat and other districts. This was another example of discrimination in development.

HC imposes penalty

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on May 13 imposed a penalty of Rs 67 crore on Soma Isolex Rollways for the delay in completion of the project which to be paid in the next three weeks. Out of Rs 67 crore, the company has to pay Rs 60 crore while the rest was to be paid by its director.

Chandigarh, July 23
Can a farmer get a relief of Rs 2 as compensation for damage to his crop due to floods? The “farmer-friendly” Hooda Government has performed this ‘feat’.

The Beri Tehsildar (Jhajjar district ) has paid a measly compensation of Rs 2 to Satyanarain son of Hari Singh and Rs 3 to Tek Chand son of Bhim Singh for the damage to their crops in the 2011 floods. Interestingly, the Beri area falls in the Rohtak parliamentary constituency representated by Hooda’s son, Deepender Hooda.

The anguished farmers allegedly refused to deposit these cheques in Axis Bank, claiming that they would first have to open an account in the bank which would cost them several hundred rupees. When local INLD leaders wanted photocopies of the cheques, the farmers concerned handed them the cheques claiming that even photocopies would cost them more than the cheque amount.

Terming the meagre compensation as a “cruel joke”, senior INLD leader and Ellenabad MLA Abhay Singh Chautala alleged that this showed the real “anti-farmer” face of the Hooda government.

State INLD president Ashok Arora alleged that the Hooda Government seemed to have set a record of sorts by paying the lowest flood compensation. “First it did not take any flood-control measures resulting in widespread losses to crops. Now, by paying a token compensation, the Hooda Government had rubbed salt on the wounds of the farmers,” he added.

Meanwhile, Hooda claimed that the compensation was given at a rate of per hectare and not per person.The affected farmer would get compensation as per his share of land, he added.

Official sources claimed that the government had released Rs 1.14 crore as compensation to farmers hit by waterlogging in the Beri tehsil area. The amount has been distributed among farmers affected by waterlogging at a rate of Rs 3,500 per acre for 3,365 acres of land according to their share in khewat.

They clarified that as some khewats had more shareholders, the compensation was given as per their share of land. In girdawari, efforts were made to ensure that compensation was given to every marginal farmer in the khewat.

Panipat, July 23
The district administration, in compliance with Punjab and Haryana High Court orders, started an anti-encroachment drive to vacate 900 acre of panchayat land at Aasaan village in Panipat.

The court had asked the administration to remove the encroachments. The Sub-divisional Magistrate had held a meeting with villagers 10 days ago and informed them about the court order.

The villagers did not take the matter seriously and were surprised when Sub-divisional Magistrate Ashwani Malik reached the village with tractors and police and ordered his team to uproot crops.

After about 10 to 15 acres of land was cleared, the villagers agreed to surrender the land and urged that the land be auctioned. The sarpanch gave in writing that the entire land was in his possession and it would be auctioned within 10 days.

The Sub-divisional Magistrate said out of 900 acres of encroached land, 25 acres was under “gochar bhumni” (grazing land), 50 acre was under dispute and the remaining 825 acre would be auctioned.

Chandigarh, July 23
Charging the the Hooda Government with failure on all fronts, the INLD today termed the government as “anti-farmer and anti-poor”.

Addressing a press conference here today, senior INLD leader and Ellenabad MLA Abhay Chautala and state unit president Ashok Arora alleged that despite Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s repeated announcements that the farmers' land would not be auctioned for delayed payment of loans of cooperative banks, farmers were still being harassed. While 25,000 farmers had been declared as defaulters, Balbir Singh, a farmer of Dhurala village (Ambala), had been sentenced to one-year imprisonment for defaulting on the loan amount, they alleged.

Alleging that the government had not taken any preventive step to minimise the crop damage in recent floods in Yamunanagar, Karnal, Panipat and Sonepat districts, the INLD leaders demanded immediate compensation to the affected farmers.

Chautala demanded that Sports Minister Sukhbir Kataria should either be made to resign or dismissed from the Cabinet as a Gurgaon court had recently issued non-bailable warrants against him for allegedly preparing bogus votes.

Meanwhile, Arora alleged that the state government was still to implement the decision to hike the old age, widow and handicapped pension by Rs 50 per year for the past four years.

Sirsa, July 23
Wheat meant for making midday meals for schoolchildren was found infested with bugs when Dabwali Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Subhash Sheoran conducted a surprise inspection of schools in Dabwali, Sawantkhera and Mangeana villages and other areas.

“Wheat was found infested with bugs at Dabwali and Sawantkhera, while utensils meant for serving midday meals to children were found unclean at some other places,” Sheoran said.

Sheoran said he found some other minor discrepancies and added that he had sent his report to the authorities concerned for necessary action.

After the death of 22 kids after consuming midday meals in Bihar, the authorities in Sirsa had issued instructions to the schools in this regard. Sirsa Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan had directed the heads of schools to taste midday meals themselves before serving it to the children.

However, Sheoran’s surprise checks to the schools have revealed that the attitude of those responsible for the midday meal scheme continues indifferent despite the tragedy in Bihar. 

Hisar, July 23
Acting on complaints from parents of students about weevil-infested grain being used for making midday meals, a team from the Education Department, led by a nodal officer for the Midday Meal Scheme, visited the Government Primary School at Dhani Premnagar village near Barwala district on Monday.

Village school management committee member Baljit Singh had detected worms in the grain brought by a school peon to his grinder shop a few days ago. His initial complaints about foul smell emanating from food were ignored but later fresh grain was brought from a neighbouring school.

Block Education Officer Devender Kundu today said a nodal officer for the Midday Meal Scheme from Chandigarh inspected the school. The school authorities have cleaned weevil from the grain, but worms were found in rice. The officials have directed the school staff to clean the rice and if they are not able to do so then replace it with a fresh stock. They also tasted the food prepared for the children and expressed satisfaction.

Hisar, July 23
Some polytechnic students blocked vehicular traffic on the National Highway-10 (NH 10) to protest against disallowing the promotion to reappearing students to the fifth semester of the diploma courses, here today.

The police reached the spot and cleared the traffic within 15 minutes. Later, the students staged a demonstration inside the Government Polytechnic College.

They demanded that those students who had failed to clear examinations in earlier semesters should be allowed to take admission in the fifth semester.

They alleged that the State Technical Education Department had amended the rules in this regard without informing the students. They said they would launch a state-wide agitation if the state government failed to fulfil their demands in the next two days.

Yamunanagar, July 23
The two seasonal rivers, Somb and Pathrala, which had been virtually carrying little or almost no water for the past many years, this year wrecked havoc on more than 100 villages of Yamunanagar district due to unplanned human activities in villages located along the two rivers.

Lalhari village residents said for the past seven to eight years little or no water had flowed through these rivers. This encouraged local farmers to extend farming practices to the river beds of the two rivers.

Besides, trees also started growing on the river beds and no attempts were made to clean the natural path of the two rivers, which almost disappeared at several places in the district. Though the Somb river had concrete embankments at most places, about two years ago the river breached at a few places, washing away the concrete embankments. Till date, no attempts have been made to repair the embankments.

Villagers, too, took it for granted that dried up rivers did not pose any danger to them. However, this year the catchment areas of the two rivers in the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh received more than normal rainfall and the water came rushing down to the plains in Yamunanagar.

With no embankments in place and the natural path of the two rivers blocked by human and farming activities, more than 100 villages were inundated. Besides, an important bridge near Ranjitpur was washed away and a direct link between the Haryana and Himachal Pradesh cut off.

Narinder Kumar, a farmer, of Khanuwala village said the floods inundated the fields spread on thousands of acres and damaged the crop to a great extent. 

Rains rein in Yamunanagar

* Somb and Pathrala rivers wrecked havoc on more than 100 villages of Yamunanagar district

* Local farmers had extended farming practices to river beds of the two rivers

* Till date, authorities have made no attempts to clean the natural path of the two rivers or repair the embankments

Sonepat, July 23
Dr YV Reddy, Chairman, 14th Finance Commission, today inaugurated a drug de-addiction centre in ward No 13 of the BPS Government Women Medical College, Khanpur Kalan.

Dr Reddy said the centre was the need of the hour with young people increasingly indulging in drug abuse. He added that the government should open these centres in other parts of the state also.

Appreciating the state government for opening the centre in the interior of Sonepat district, the chairman assured the director of the college that he would talk to the government, especially regarding this institute.

He said these kinds of medical institutes should be funded so that these could provide the healthcare services to the poor and needy patients.

A 14-member team of the Commission today visited the medical college and inspected the intensive care units, OPD, wards, labour room and other important sections of the hospital and interacted with the patients.

The team also held a detailed discussion with SN Roy, Principal Secretary, Medical Education and Research Department; Dr Chander Shekhar, Deputy Commissioner; and Dr RC Siwach, Director of the medical college.

Chandigarh, July 23
Even at a time when the realty sector is facing recession, the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) residential schemes continue to be a hit with investors.

A case in point is the two residential schemes offered by HUDA in Sector 14(Part II) and Sector 33 (Part I) in Hisar, which had been oversubscribed over 80 times with more than 2.3 lakh persons applying for 2,878 residential plots, official sources said here today.

Officials said the tremendous response was on account of the fact that the plots were being offered in the developed urban estate having all infrastructural facilites. With various banks and financial institutions offering easy finance for the plots, applicants preferred HUDA plots instead of apartments offered by private builders, a senior official stated.

Though not a part of the NCR, Hisar is being developed as a counter-magnet city to New Delhi with a view to decongesting the NCR.

Pricing wasanother factor for the good response as HUDA offered plots in the price range of Rs 13,050 to Rs 14,500 in Sector 14 (Part II) and Rs 14,500 to Rs 15,950 in Sector 33 (Part I). 

IN DEMaND

* Plots offered in developed urban estates

* Easy finance from banks and financial institutions

* Counter-magnet city status of Hisar has its own advantages

* HUDA plots carry handsome premium after allotment

Fatehabad, July 23
The authorities have declared award for over 48 kanals to be acquired for the construction of the building of the Sub-tehsil Complex at Jakhal in Fatehabad. Yogesh Kumar Mehta, Sub-divisional Magistrate-cum-Land Acquisition Collector, Tohana, announced the award at Jakhal today.

He also redressed the grievances of land owners on the spot and recorded their statements. He said the complex will have offices of the Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Child Development Project Officer and Assistant Treasury Officer and Food and Supply Department apart from sub-tehsil.

Mehta said as per the government’s policy, a compensation of Rs 20 lakh per acre, along with 30 per cent solatium and 12 percent per annum interest from the date of notification, would be given to the landowners. This would come out be between Rs 32 and 33 lakh per acre, he added.

Also, the land owners concerned would be given annuity of Rs 21,000 per year for 21 years which would be increased by Rs 750 every year.

The land owners would be given Rs 4,000 in lieu of their standing crop for acquiring the land immediately, he added. 

Karnal, July 23
Inspite of 33 per cent reservation for women and the representation of 22,827 women members in the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI), the real empowerment of women in the state remains a distant dream.

Though the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution has made a legal provision for 33 per cent reservation for women in PRIs, in majority of the cases, it has ended up “empowering men through women”.

At present, there are 21,739 women panches, including 6,416 representatives from the Scheduled Caste (SC), in the state. Of the 2,022 women sarpanches, 435 are SC. In Zila Parishad, of the 132 women members, 33 are from the SC category. In Panchayat Samiti, 956 women representatives include 241SC.

A study, “Empowerment of women in PRIs of Haryana”, by Rekha Chaudhary revealed that most of the elected women representatives have not been empowered yet due to lack of education, awareness and confidence. Various studies and surveys carried out in the state have also pointed out that the “old mindset” of society has still not changed and gender bias, discrimination and female foeticide still prevailed in the society.

The sex ratio is skewed, pre-natal sex determination tests are being conducted clandestinely and youth are not getting female partners for marriage due to low female sex ratio. The social evil of dowry still continues and the Hindu Succession Act, which gives share to daughter in the property, has emerged as another reason for abhorrence for girl child in society.

A former dean of social sciences and academic affairs of Kurukshetra University, Prof Ranbir Singh, says reservation has definitely put an end to cooption but has not empowered women in the male-dominated society as lack of leadership qualities, educational, political, physiological and social awareness, economic independence as well as communication skills among women are still acting as barriers in their empowerment.

Even the nick names like ‘bharpai’ (paying the debt), ‘bhateri’ (enough) and ‘bapon’ (fed up) given to girls by the parents suggest that the girl child is still unwanted. There is an old saying in Haryana ‘Chhori mare Bhagwan ke, Chhora mare Nirbhag ka’ (If girl dies, it is the wish of the God, and if a boy dies, it due to misfortune) which reflects the bias towards male child.

It was a matter of serious concern that not only the uneducated but even the educated women continued to play second fiddle to men and were not in a position to assert themselves, observed Social activist Karan Sahu.

Rewari, July 23
Jeetoo (20) of Malasyawas village, about 40 km from Rewari, committed suicide by jumping before a train, near Nangal Pathani station on the Rewari-Hisar track this afternoon.

The Railway Police of Charkhi Dadri (Bhiwani) was holding inquest proceedings to ascertain the cause of the suicide.