Chandigarh,September 27
Cancelling the mutation of land between AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law and realty major DLF in Gurgaon is set to cost whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka dear with the Haryana Government deciding to chargesheet him for alleged administrative misconduct.

With Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda giving approval for chargesheeting Khemka, the stage is set for the issue of a chargesheet to the officer by next week, sources said here today.

Earlier, Chief Secretary PK Chaudhery had compiled comments from the administrative branch and sent them to Hooda, who, in turn, approved the action against Khemka. The officer is to be chargesheeted for penalty under Rule 8 of the All-India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules.

However, Khemka told reporters that as he was yet to receive the chargesheet, he could not comment upon it.

The sources said the IAS officer had been held liable for alleged administrative misconduct for overstepping his jurisdiction in passing orders to cancel the mutation of 3.5 acre land in Gurgaon's Shikohpur village. The land was sold by Vadra to DLF.

After being transferred on October 11, 2012, from the post of Director-General, Consolidation of Holdings (DGH) and Inspector-General, Registration, Khemka had on October 12 and 15 last year ordered an inquiry into the alleged undervaluation of land owned by Vadra or his companies in Gurgaon, Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat and set aside the mutation of the 3.5 acre land in Shikohpur.

Besides, Khemka has also been held liable for public criticism of actions and policies of the state government.

The Haryana Government's committee of three senior officers, set up to probe Khemka's orders, had later found Khemka’s order to be inappropriate and without jurisdiction.

The penalties include reduction to a lower stage in the time scale of pay for a specific period, reduction to a lower grade or post which shall ordinarily be a bar to promotion, compulsory retirement and removal from service which shall not be a disqualification for future employment under government, sources said.

New Delhi, September 27
The Congress high command today issued notice to its Gurgaon MP, Rao Inderjit, asking him to make his position clear on the claims to quit the party.

“You made certain remarks at a public rally in Rewari. You are hereby required to please clarify your position on those remarks,” the notice signed by AICC general secretary in charge of Haryana Shakeel Ahmed says. The notice, Ahmed said, was in the manner of a letter as the party wanted to bring on record the exact position of Rao Inderjit Singh on the issue of his resignation from the party.

“The thing is Rao Inderjit Singh has not sent us any resignation. And till he clarifies his remarks, we cannot form a view. We have asked him to furnish his reply to the high command by October 7 after which we will decide whether to let the matter rest or take it further to the party’s disciplinary committee,” Ahmed said today.

The Congress does not want to give Rao Inderjit the privilege of expulsion from the party because when an MP is expelled, he gets to keep his Lok Sabha seat as per the existing laws.

The Congress’ notice to Inderjt is a political ploy to force his formal statement on the issue. It is, however, common knowledge that his daughter has applied for an election symbol to float a party. The Election Commission is seized of that matter.

Karnal, September 27
In a partial relief to rice millers of the state, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has agreed to reduce the enhanced security amount from Rs 20 lakh to 5 lakh.

The Chief Minister also assured to look into the issue of Rs 52 crore bonus paid by the millers to growers in 2007-08.

A delegation of the Rice Millers Association led by CONFED Chairman Bajrang Dass Garg today met the Chief Minister and apprised him about the problems being faced by the rice millers.

Association president Rajender Aggarwal said the Chief Minister immediately agreed to reduce the enhanced security amount from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Spokesperson for the association Ashish Mehta said the issue of payment of bonus to the growers in 2007-08 was also discussed and the Chief Minister gave an assurance to probe the matter and issue indemnity bonds.

Officials of the department said the bonus issue did not affect Ambala, Sirsa and Yamunanagar districts and the problem would be investigated in other districts. Aggarwal said details of talks would be shared with the district presidents and further action would be planned after seeking their views.

Chandigarh September 27
The Haryana Government has made all arrangements for the smooth procurement of paddy during the current kharif season.

The commencement of the procurement of paddy and bajra will start from October 1 and the state government has arranged Rs 5,108.8 crore from the Reserve Bank of India for making payment to farmers for the purchase of produce.

This was disclosed by Food and Supplies Minister Mahender Pratap Singh here. He said the minimum support price for procurement of common variety of paddy this season has been fixed at Rs 1,310 per quintal while it was Rs 1,345 per quintal for grade 'A' paddy.

He said about 52 lakh metric tonnes of paddy was expected to arrive in mandis during the current season and out of this about 16 lakh metric tonnes of paddy would be basmati and superior varieties while the remaining 36 lakh tonnes would be leviable. – TNS

Chandigarh, September 27
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today ordered a special 'girdawari' to assess the damage to cotton crop by white fly and leaf curl viral .

An official spokesman said a survey was conducted to know the extent of damage to cotton crops in Hisar district and during survey, it was found that cotton crop in about 1,23,096 hectares in about 270 villages of the district has got damaged including 25,759 hectares below ETL, 68,792 above ETL and 28,545 hectares were severely attacked by the viral.

He said as per norms of State Disaster Relief Fund input subsidy is given for agricultural, horticulture and annual plantation crops where the crop loss is 50 per cent and above.

He said subsidy at the rate of Rs 4,500 per hectare is given in rainfed and restricted to sown areas, Rs 9,000 per hectare in assured irrigated areas subject to minimum assistance not less than Rs 750 and restricted to sown areas.

He said as per the survey report of white fly infestation in cotton crop during kharif 2013 in Hisar district, 17,330 hectares of land had been damaged in Hisar-I block, 11,650 hectares in Hisar-II block, 13,681 hectares in Agroha, 8,760 hectares in Adampur, 20,520 hectares in Barwala, 12,170 hectares in Uklana, 17,545 hectares in Hansi and 7,660 and 13,780 hectares in Bass and NND block of the district respectively.

Chandigarh, September 27
Under the loss reduction plan, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam have decided to fix feeder-wise loss reduction targets to minimise the aggregated technical and commercial (AT&C) losses in the state. The targets will be fixed considering category of consumers being fed from a feeder.

Chairman and Managing Director Devender Singh said the targets of loss reduction for independent industrial, urban, mixed urban, rural domestic and industrial feeders would be different and fixed on the basis of consumer-base.

“The discoms have been directed to complete 100 per cent consumer indexing in the state by September 30. This will help in identification of consumers on all the feeders,” he said.

He said the loss reduction was the top priority of the discoms for which two separate programmes would be started in the urban and rural areas. It had been decided to relocate all electricity meters outside premises in urban areas by January 2014, he said, adding that most of the three-phase meters and more than 50 per cent of the single-phase meters had already been shifted outside the premises.

He said the discoms had also intensified the power theft checking programme under which as many as 8,951 FIRs had been lodged by the irrigation and power police stations from January to September this year.

In order to regularise kundi (illegal) connections, the discoms would hold open darbars in the villages from October 3. It had been decided to give on the spot connections to domestic category applicants. However, the new connection would not be given to the defaulting consumer, he added.

Bhiwani, September 27
Nearly 500 acres of agriculture land submerged in canal water last night. Sources said breaches in the Mitathal feeder canal and Bhiwani distributary flooded cotton and paddy crops in Badesara, Dhanana, Chang, Sai and Mitathal villages of the district. Farmers demanded adequate compensation for the crop loss.

DP Punia, SDO, Irrigation Department, however, said breaches in both the canals had almost been plugged. He said there was negligible damage to the crop 

Chandigarh, September 27
The Haryana Excise and Taxation Department has collected a revenue of Rs 9156.76 crore up to August as against Rs 8501.20 crore during the same period in the last financial year.

Excise and Taxation Minister Kiran Choudhry said here today that collection of VAT up to August was Rs 6506.21 crore, which was 6.13 per cent more as compared to that in the corresponding period last year. She said Rs 702.89 crore was collected as Central Sales Tax up to August during the current financial year showing an increase of 7.64 per cent over the collection made in the corresponding period last financial year.

The minister said excise collection was Rs1678.61 crore till August which was 14.44 per cent higher as compared to that in the last financial year.

Choudhry said the department had recorded an increase of 9.41 per cent in collection of entertainment tax up to August by collecting more than Rs 25.17 crore as compared to over Rs 23 crore during the same period last year.

The passenger and goods tax collection was over Rs 206.19 crore up by 6.71 per cent as compared to the corresponding period of last financial year.

Karnal, September 27
As many as 60 dengue cases have been confirmed and around 250 dengue cases are suspected in Karnal. These are the official figures and a large number of patients have also been admitted to private hospitals. The health authorities have failed to cope up with the situation due to acute staff crunch. However, the homeopaths have come out as saviours, suggesting effective remedies for the patients.

Under the Urban Malaria Scheme (UMS), only 24 posts are filled out of the total 41 posts. The posts of insect collector, deputy superintendent, clerks and head-clerk are lying vacant.

In Malaria Department, 82 posts are filled out of the total 143 posts. The vacant posts include insect collectors, senior lab assistant, malaria inspector, clerks and field officers.

Dr Vimal Dhawan, a homeopath, said he was treating more than 50 dengue infested patients and the medication differed on the basis of symptoms with every case.

"Homeopathic treatment is the safest. The disease is curable with the help of proper and timely treatment," he added.

Meanwhile, a Utility Court has taken serious view of the spread of dengue on the complaint of an RTI activist Rajesh Sharma, Advocate Rahul Mohan and two other lawyers. It issued notices to the civil surgeon and the Improvement Trust to file reply by September 30.

Hisar, September 27
Irked over “inflated” power bills, residents of Pabra village in the district have decided not to pay the bills until the authorities resolve their grievances. They have also announced to impose a fine of Rs 11,000 on anybody who deposits the bill.

Officials of the Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN), who went to the village to collect the bill amount, today returned empty-handed as no one paid the bills. Villagers said they would not deposit the bills until the power utility resolved their grievances.

Naresh Sharma, a resident of the village, said nearly 1,500 families of the village had been affected by the inflated power bills. They had received bills with almost double the amount in the recent months, he said. “We are not in a position to deposit bills amounting Rs 4,000 to 5,000. We met officials of the power utility but they refused to listen to our demands,” he said.

Finally, the villagers had decided not to deposit the bill payment, he said.

“We will pay the bills but only after our grievances are addressed,” Sharma said.

The villagers took the decision yesterday in a meeting which was also attended by the village sarpanch.

A power department spokesperson said due to hike in the electricity charges and imposition of fuel surcharge, the amount had gone up in the recent months.

Sirsa, September 27
A married woman was allegedly raped by her husband’s partner in the Khairpur area of Sirsa, while another woman from Mangala village, who had lodged an FIR of rape against a villager, has alleged that the police is soft towards the accused.

In her complaint to the police, the married woman alleged that Sudesh Kumar, who was partner in her husband’s business of sale and purchase of used cars, came to her house when her husband was away and allegedly raped her by using force.

The police has registered a case after recording the woman’s statement in the presence of a woman counsel of the District Legal Services Authority.

A woman from Mangala village had accused Harpinder Singh, a youth from her village, of raping her on September 12.

The police had lodged an FIR against the accused on September 17.

A day later, Harpinder was found lying with his hands tied under mysterious circumstances by the roadside.

Senior Superintendent of Police Saurabh Singh said the police would arrest the accused as soon as doctors discharge him from the hospital.

Sirsa, September 27
A local court has convicted five persons for the murder of a fruit vender at Ellenabad in Sirsa, two years back and acquitted five others for lack of evidence against them.

The court has reserved its decision on the quantum of sentence to the five convicts.

On August 3, 2011, some persons had attacked a fruit vendor, Sunil, at Tibbi bus stop of Ellenabad town in Sirsa. The assailants first beat up the deceased mercilessly and then shot him.

He had died on the spot and three others, who tried to save him, sustained injuries.

The police had booked 10 persons in connection with the attack.

The Additional District and Sessions Judge, Sirsa, convicted Gurdev Singh, Sunny, Krishan Kumar, Rajesh and Daljit Singh of murder and acquitted the other five for lack of sufficient evidence.