Chandigarh, September 28
As the sound of dhols resounded at the residence of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here today, farmers broke into an impromptu jig in his lawns.

The farmers came to express happiness and gratitude to Hooda for announcing a hike in sugarcane prices earlier this week.

As the thanksgiving programme of the farmers transformed into a rally of sorts, Congress leaders bonded with the crowd over sugarcane, chewing stalks brought by the farmers from different pockets of the state. MP Deepinder Singh Hooda chewed a cane stalk all through. Hooda and Public Works Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, too, joined in, even giving their “verdict” on the cane’s sweetness, much to the delight of the cheering crowd.

The sweetness in cane prices spread around could be gauged from the thunderous applause in the charged atmosphere and in the pro-Hooda slogans that rent the air time and again. It was also audible in the drums that kept beating all through the programme as more farmers arrived at the venue.

The gathering of farmers presented a pagri to Hooda to express appreciation for the “country’s highest-ever minimum support price” of Rs 301, Rs 295 and Rs 290 per quintal for the early, mid and late varieties.

Hooda, given a rousing welcome on his arrival, advocated “assured income” for the farmers. “This will happen once you get 50 per cent profit over and above the cost of production as recommended by the working group constituted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under my chairmanship. These recommendations and other pro-farmer initiatives, if accepted by the Central Government, will even make the demand for bonus redundant,” Hooda said.

He announced that a massive rally to be attended by about 20 lakh people would be held in November to raise the voice in support of Haryana and Punjab farmers being uprooted from Gujarat.

He lambasted the opposition parties for neglecting the farmers’ interests and misleading them. He took a dig at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi without naming him, comparing the performance of the two states to show Haryana was way ahead.

Deepender Hooda threw an open challenge to all states in terms of sugarcane price and other farmer-friendly welfare measures while hinting that the old-age allowance could further be raised.

Surjewala said the Congress government had consistently increased the MSP of wheat, paddy and sugarcane while the opposition parties had fired at the farmers and shed their blood. Haryana Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana, Finance Minister HS Chatha also spoke.

Chandigarh September 28
The Haryana Government has chalked out an ambitious plan to collaborate with NRIs for the better development of the state.

As a first step, it has been decided to implement a scheme "Pravasi Haryanvi Bhagidari Vikas Yojna" to coordinate and facilitate the efforts of NRIs with that of the state government. This decision was taken at a meeting of the Haryana Rural Development and Panchayats Department held under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda here.

It was informed at the meeting that a large number of Haryanvis had migrated to different parts of the world. The scheme aimed at encouraging such people to maintain emotional roots with their place of birth and also inspiring them to contribute towards the development of native village and towns.

At the meeting, a committee under the chairmanship of the Deputy Commissioner would receive proposals from the NRIs regarding the development projects to be adopted or funded by them. The committee would also decide whether the work is to be undertaken at government level or through any other agency. A state-level cell would also be set up under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to supervise the functioning of a district-level society.

Hooda was apprised that a district-level society would maintain a data base of all NRIs of the district, including the details of their present addresses, their contact numbers and complete personal bio-data. The society would facilitate the pravasis who were interested to contribute in cash or kind for the upliftment of villages. Apart from this, it would also provide one-point contact solution to Pravasi investors through single-window clearance mechanism.

The Chief Minister was informed that the society would also set up a grievance redressal forum for the NRIs and the execution of the work would be carried out in consultation with them.

The projects or activities for which the pravasis could contribute included pavement of streets, providing improvement and sanitary conditions, general habitation improvement or for providing common toilets, communities recreation centres, panchayat ghars, libraries, sports fields, playground or stadium, construction of new school building, extension or repair of existing school building establishment, drinking water supply etc.

Gurgaon, September 28
The Haryana regional branch of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) organised a seminar on "Food Security in India - Issues and Suggestions for Effectiveness" on the premises of the Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) here today.

Sudhir Kumar, Secretary (Food and Public Distribution) of the Union Government, who was the chief guest, maintained that the state governments should make use of technology and digitise the data of beneficiaries under the Food Security Act to check pilferage and ensure that the benefit of the scheme reached the eligible beneficiaries.

He revealed that the Central Government would give a subsidy of about Rs 1.25 lakh crore on the scheme.

Kumar observed that for bringing transparency in foodgrain distribution under the scheme, the states should give priority to grievance handling.

“The state governments should have a dedicated helpline to hear the grievances pertaining to foodgrain distribution and every complaint should be dealt with promptly,” he asserted.

Complimenting the Haryana Government for being a frontrunner in completing the socio-economic survey in the country, he said Nagaland and Haryana were the first ones to complete this survey in the country.

Earlier, Haryana Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary (Food and Supplies) Dhanpat Singh said to implement the Food Security Bill efficiently in the state, the ration-depot holders had been directed to get signatures from the vigilance committees constituted in villages by the Development and Panchayat Department of which the village sarpanch is the head.

Regarding the digitisation of data, Singh said the old ration cards in Haryana were being replaced with smart cards and once the exercise was completed, the data would be digitised.

He claimed that nearly 3.5 lakh brick-kiln labourers in the state had been issued temporary ration cards so that they could get the benefit of welfare schemes. Domestic helps, maids and migrant construction labourers would also be brought into the ambit of such schemes, he added.

Gurgaon ADC PS Chauhan proposed the vote of thanks. Former Haryana Chief Secretary and IIPA chairman MC Gupta and vice-chairman of the Haryana regional branch Dr G Prasanna Kumar also addressed the participants.

Hisar, September 28
Hoping that Congress MP from Gurgaon Rao Inderjit Singh will not leave the party, Rajya Sabha MP Birender Singh stated that he was still in the Congress and the party had not served any notice on him and just asked him to clarify his position by writing a letter.

Addressing a press conference here today, the senior Congress leader stated if any party leader raised the issues concerning his constituency, he did nothing wrong. "It's the responsibility of the government to take care of the interests of all regions so that the leaders need not raise the voices of dissent.

He said the state party unit had written to Rao Inderjit to clarify his position whether he had left the party or not after media reports in this regard and no notice had been served on him.

Stating that the Union Cabinet should review the ordinance to allow the convicted legislatures to continue to hold the political posts, the Rajya Sabha MP said the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had expressed the party's opinion on the ordinance.

The Rajya Sabha MP also echoed with the Gandhi's opinion, stating that the ordinance should be withdrawn to ensure disqualification of the convicted politicians from continuing to be MP/MLA. Congress leaders, including Amit Kajal, Uday Veer Punia, Kuljit Ghanghas, Manoj Nachar and Ranbir Lohan, were also present on the occasion.

Faridabad, September 28
Haryana Labour Minister Shivcharan Sharma disclosed that Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda will address a rally in Faridabad on Dussehra, which is on October 13. Laying of a foundation stone for beautification of Gochi drain will be part of Hooda's programme during his visit.

The rally will be held in Sector 52 located in the NIT Assembly constituency in this district. The NIT seat is represented by Sharma. He contested as an Independent when the Congress denied him a ticket in the last Assembly election.

Sharma said after addressing the rally, Hooda would also take part in Dussehra celebrations as the chief guest.

Speaking at a public function after launching the Rs 75-crore project relating to laying of cemented roads and strengthening of sewerage system in Nangla Enclave-1 in NIT, Sharma lauded Hooda for being "pro-development". 

Gurgaon, September 28
The district police today marked an inquiry into detention of two security guards in a police station for nearly 10 hours allegedly at the instance of Joint Commissioner of Police (City) Maheshwar Dayal for refusing entry to his relatives in a posh condominium in DLF Phase 4.

Residents of the condominium said the two guards had stopped a car belonging to Dayal and asked the occupants to park the car outside the campus as they didn't have the sticker or permission to enter the campus.

The occupants were heading to a school inside the condominium. The residents alleged that Dayal's children were in the car as they were supposed to be dropped at the school for a trip.

Guards Ajay Singh and Anil Singh said the occupants immediately called the JCP and within minutes a PCR reached there. Two policemen in civil clothes took the guards and questioned them for almost 10 hours.

The guards were let off on the intervention of the condominium manager and head of the security agency.

Refuting the allegations, Dayal said, "There is no issue of misuse of power. The questioning or verification of the guards had nothing to do with me or stopping any VIP car. The guards were not in their uniform and were taken for verification. They were let off when the agency people came and verified their details. Police did its duty and the allegations are baseless," he said.

Alok Mittal, Commissioner of Police, however, marked an inquiry into the matter.

Bhiwani, September 28
Former Army chief, General VK Singh, said despite an attempt to falsely implicate him by the Centre, he would continue to share stage with politicians in the interests of the Army and the country.

Gen Singh, attending a function to mark the birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh in Jhojhu Kalan village of the district today, said his presence at political stages did not mean that he’s going to join politics. “At present, I have no intention to join politics. But I’ll attend the functions if someone invites me”, said he.

Referring to his two appearances in the political rallies in Rewari organised by the INLD and the BJP, he maintained that he had not discussed politics in the functions and tried to raise the issues concerning the Army and the youth of the country.

Asked about the controversy surrounding the leaked report of Technical Services Division, a secret intelligence unit of the Army, Gen Singh stated that it was a conspiracy against him and the ruling Congress was trying to put him in the dock for obvious reasons.

“The youngsters should enroll themselves as voters and actively participate in the political process”, he said.

Retired Colonel Tejender Pal Tyagi, former Chief Election Commissioner GVG Krishnamurti, were among those who attended the function.

Sirsa, September 28
A man and his nephew drowned when their motorcycle met with an accident near Nohar feeder of the Bhakra Canal system near Chopta in the district last night.

The victims, Dharam Pal (30) and his nephew Ved Pal (15), were coming towards Sirsa on a motorcycle along the canal when their motorcycle colliding with a jeep and the two fell into the canal. The jeep driver sped away.

When villagers came to know about the incident, they informed the police.

Night-long searches failed to provide any clue of the victims. Search operations were restarted in the morning after reducing the flow of water.

Later, the bodies were found in the afternoon at a distance of about 2 km from where they had fallen.

The bodies were shifted to the General Hospital for post-mortem. The police established the identity of the jeep driver on the basis of statements of villagers and recovered the jeep from Rupana Khurd village. The jeep driver was still at large and efforts were on to arrest him.

Sirsa, September 28
Another case of human trafficking has come to light in Sirsa. A 20-year-old woman from West Bengal was brought here on the pretext of a job and efforts were made to push her into immoral trafficking.

Two days ago, a teenaged girl from West Bengal was sent to the shelter home in Narnaul. The girl, who was sold twice, was lucky to escape every time.

The victim reached the police station after giving the slip to two women acting as agents to sell girls in Bhiwani.

A local woman, who is infamous for running a prostitution racket, sent the victim with three youths last night for money. A tea stall owner spotted the woman sobbing near Bishnoi Market here this morning and he informed the police.

City Police Station SHO Dalip Singh said the police had booked Satish Bagri, who allegedly called the woman to Sirsa for a job, and Seema, who sent her with three youths, last evening under Section 370-A (employing a trafficked person) of the IPC.

“My mother sent me to Delhi with a woman Sultana, who lived in our neighbour so that I could find some job of a maid. In Delhi, Sultana sent me with Satish Bagri. After arriving in Sirsa, Bagri left me at the residence of Seema who lived in Ther Mohalla. Last night, Seema sent me with three youths, who took me towards a tubewell in an agriculture field. However, I judged their intentions and escaped from there,” the woman told the police.

Dalip Singh said Seema had already been arrested and efforts were on to nab Bagri and the three youths so that they could be interrogated to know whether they had pushed some other women into the flesh trade.