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Haryana slams NAFED over charges
Cops threatened us, offered money: Victim’s family
Tribune Impact |
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Industries resent minimum wage hike
School lecturers withdraw agitation
A first: HAFED Sugar Mill makes payment to farmers in 24 hrs
Two suffocate to death in sewer
State should amend Punjab Acts: Sampat
Girl run over by truck, villagers block
highway
Adopt transparent policy: High Court
300 police stations to get fingerprint scanning devices
Youth tied to car, dragged to death; friend beaten up
State bureaucracy, police top heavy
Yogeshwar, Sushil to miss C’wealth meet
Principal Secy pays surprise visit to Ambala Civil Hospital
Kuldeep Bishnoi, HJC supremo, interacts with supporters during a visit to a village in Bhiwani on Thursday. A Tribune Photograph
Awareness march marks World Organ Donation Day
Activists of the Samaj Kalyan Shiksha Samiti take out an awareness march on World Organ Donation Day in Sonepat on Thursday. Photo: BS Malik
Death in custody: Charge sheet likely next month
Rs 4,000-cr plan to strengthen power distribution
Harassment by in-laws lands three in hospital
Road cleaning machine introduced in Kaithal
Sugar mill to spend Rs 3.48 crore on facilities for farmers
Industries' meet
DC takes stock of sanitation drive
HJC yatra only to save tie-up with BJP: Cong
Cattle smugglers clash with police
Hospitals' empanelling
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Haryana slams NAFED over charges
Chandigarh, November 28 Following a preliminary enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) earlier this year into the alleged irregularities wheat seed supply in 2010, NAFED suspended an ‘erring’ official after an in-house inquiry and ‘unilaterally’ indicted Haryana officials. In a U-turn on already approved proceedings in the wheat seed purchase, NAFED now believes the allegations made by then HSDC MD Ashok Khemka to the CBI ‘appear to be correct prima facie’. The wheat seed was sold by Agro Service Centre, Ludhiana, to the HSDC. The allegations include purchase of ‘untreated’ wheat seed by the ASC, Ludhiana, from a private party which was, at that point in time, not empanelled by NAFED at rates higher than those prevailing in the market. Conducted by a Manager-rank official of NAFED, the report states that a demand of wheat seed was received from the HSDC in November 2010. The in charge, ASC, Ludhiana, then in Delhi, contacted a private party, obtained the rates and quoted those to the HSDC. No other supplier was contacted and the rates of the private party were not verified with those prevailing in the market. Maintaining that retail rates of seed ranged between Rs 1,650 and Rs 1,800 during October and November, 2010, the wheat seed was a supplied at Rs 2,050 per quintal through the party, thereby ‘enriching the suppliers’. The inquiry report holds that the ASC, Ludhiana, acted as middleman since the party bought the seed from four other smaller players. It points out that officials of NAFED, HSDC and the Haryana State Seed Certifying Agency were also involved in the alleged scam since ‘untreated seed’ was certified, adding that the transaction between ASC, Ludhiana, and the HSDC was regularised in 2011. Taking exception to this allegation of alleged ‘involvement’ of the HSDC and the certifying agency in the scam, the Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Roshan Lal, in a reply to NAFED, states that as per the government’s policy, the farmers were to be supplied untreated seed and the seed was to be treated subsequently by the farmer. “The inquiry officer neither consulted the HSDC nor the certifying agency for comments before arriving at his conclusions. Also, since regional offices are not recognised by state agencies, NAFED remains responsible for all dealings,” the reply states. Adding that since NAFED head office regularised the transaction worth Rs 205 lakh later, the allegation that purchase was made at higher rates is self-contradictory especially since there are no bills or quotations to substantiate market rates. The reply states that the inquiry by NAFED seems an ‘after-thought and a attempt to wash its hands off the transaction’ after over two years. Emphasising that the inquiry officer only reiterates contents of the complaint made by then HSDC MD, the reply asks NAFED to withdraw its imputations against the HSDC and the certifying agency and registers its protests against the unilateral indictment of the officials of the two departments. Sources in the Agriculture Department maintain that the inquiry is not based on any documentary evidence and completed ‘in great haste’. “This report shows NAFED has developed cold feet following the initiation of an inquiry by the CBI and is trying to shift the blame. Our concern, however, is limited to the fact
that NAFED cannot point a finger at our officials on the basis of unsubstantiated facts,” an officer
maintained. |
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Cops threatened us, offered money: Victim’s family
Rohtak, November 28 Sukhvir of Likhi village in Palwal district had died in the custody of the Gurgaon Police at Sohna on November 17. The autopsy carried out at the Government Hospital, Sohna, did not find any injuries. However, numerous internal as well as external injuries were detected in the second post-mortem examination conducted at the PGIMS, Rohtak, on November 19, which indicated that he was tortured before his death. The Tribune had reported today that the police officials involved in the case had been trying to persuade the family of the deceased for a compromise. Talking to The Tribune today, Naresh, brother of Sukhvir, alleged that the Gurgaon police personnel, including an ACP-rank official, had threatened them of dire consequences and offered them Rs 30 lakh to withdraw their case. Naresh said their family had refused to accept the body until a concrete action was taken in this regard. SS Deswal, ADGP and in charge of the State Crime Branch (SCB), said a special investigation team (SIT) had been constituted under SP (SCB) Rajshree Singh to investigate the case. “IGP (Crime) Shrikant Jadhav has also been sent to Gurgaon to supervise the investigation,” said Deswal. He, however, maintained that the allegations of threatening the family and offering money to to hush up the matter should be taken care of by the local police. Yogender Singh, a leader of the Bawaria community, alleged the another youth wrongly picked up by the police along with Sukhvir was still in jail. Gurgaon Police Commissioner Alok Mittal said a judicial probe into the matter was in progress and the family the deceased had been asked to get their statements recorded before Judicial Magistrate Ashok Mann. An ACP had been asked to enquire into the allegations of wrongful arrest of the other youth, he added. |
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Jodhpuria village recommended for award under MGNREGA
Panchayat has turned its wastelands into lush green gardens Sushil Manav Tribune News Service
Sirsa, November 28 The DC also handed over a sports kit to them sports for village youths. “We have decided to recommend Jodhpuria village for a national award under the MGNREGA,” Ganesan told The Tribune. The Union Government confers awards on villages and districts that give good performance in the implementation of the MGNREGA every year. The awards were given in February, while entries for these were sent by the districts by December 31 every year, Ganesan said. Through the efforts of the village panchayat, Jodhpuria is today better than many towns. The village has well kempt parks, ponds and clean streets. The efforts have not only made the village cleaner and free of squalor, but have also given the villagers a healthy environment to sit in the open. The green lush parks have earned the village the sobriquet of “Village of gardens”. Setting an example
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Industries resent minimum wage hike
Gurgaon, November 28 They said the implementation of the announcement would affect the industry adversely and will have a negative impact on industrialisation in the state in future. Describing the announced increase in the wages as “steep”, president of the Gurgaon Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vikas Jain said the industry associations in Gurgaon and other parts of the state were deeply worried over the announcement. Echoing similar opinion, president of the NCR Chamber of Commerce and Industry HP Yadav said the announced increase in wages from the present Rs 5,341 (for unskilled worker) and Rs 5,861 (for skilled) would eventually be in the range of 70-75 per cent when contributions of the employers towards the ESIC, provident and gratuity funds, bonus and leave encashment were also taken into account. Yadav further said the announcement would hit the small and medium scale industrial units the most. “About 15-20 per cent increase can be justified. In any case, the present wages in Haryana are the highest in north India,” he said. The Gurgaon Industries Association also gave thumbs down to the announcement. Leaders of the associations said the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Confederation of Indian Industries, the two apex industry bodies, were being approached to take up the cause with the Haryana Government. "Steep" hike
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School lecturers withdraw agitation
Chandigarh, November 28 The breakthrough was achieved at a meeting convened by Principal Secretary (School Education) Surina Rajan today. The state government assured the association to form a committee within 15 days to consider their demands sympathetically. Sources said it was agreed in principle not to re-designate the school lecturers as postgraduate teachers, increase the promotion quota of the school lecturers by creating new posts and refer the issue of the increase in the grade pay from Rs 4,800 to Rs 5,400 to the Finance Department. Expressing satisfaction at the government assurance, Dayanand Dalal, president, HSLA said teachers would resume their duties and commence the evaluation work from tomorrow. Nearly 12,000 schools lecturers had gone on the two-day mass casual leave and had been boycotting the evaluation work since November 7. Deadlock ends
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A first: HAFED Sugar Mill makes payment to farmers in 24 hrs
Karnal, November 28 The payment is made through bank advise or direct deposit in their accounts. Also, ATM cards have been provided to farmers. An HDFC Bank ATM is already functional on the mill premises. Capt Chattar Singh, Chairperson,
HAFED, who opened the crushing season for 2013-14 yesterday, said the area under sugarcane had increased by seven times from 2,000 acres in 2008-09 to 14,600 acres during the
current year. He said an attractive cane development plan for 2014-2015 to increase the area under sugarcane to 18,000 acres had been prepared. Interest-free loans of Rs 856.71 lakh and a subsidy of Rs137.78 lakh had
been approved for cane growers. Cash incentives of Rs 1,000 per acres on the planting of early varieties had also been given during the spring and autumn sowing seasons for 2014-15 with a condition of minimum yield of 20 quintals per acre. Against 30.43 lakh quintals of sugarcane crushed last year, a target of 32 lakh quintals had
been set for the present season and 2MW of electricity would also be generated every day and supplied to the grid of the Utter Haryana Bijli Vitran
Nigam, said Ashok Yadav, Managing Director, HAFED, who claimed that HAFED Sugar
Mill at Assandh was the first sugar mill in the country to release payment the same day. |
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Two suffocate to death in sewer
Gurgaon, November 28 When the scavenger who entered the drain first did not respond, his colleagues went in. They did not return from the drain. A gardener employed at the nearby apartments, who was witness to the development, got suspicious and had a peek into the sewer. He nauseated and subsequently raised an alarm. The authorities swung into action and pulled out the three scavengers. They lay unconscious in the drain. All the victims were rushed to a hospital. Meanwhile, an FIR was registered against owners of Facility Management, which had employed the scavengers. Sunil and Subhash, connected to the company, were arrested. The police said the company personnel did not take precautionary measures before sending the victims in the drain. The police said, prima facie, all four were victims of poisonous gas which might have formed in the drain. The details would be available after the examination. |
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State should amend Punjab Acts: Sampat
Hisar, November 28 He said the government had expressed its desire to make such amendments during the last Assembly session by setting up a committee, but this committee was yet to be set up. Citing the example of the Punjab Land Revenue Act of 1887, he said laws regarding partition and distribution among stakeholders, including Sections 111 to 123, should be amended immediately to provide relief to farmers and simplify the procedure. "It took decades to settle cases of partitioning land within family under the present law. Many such cases remained pending for several generations without final settlement. This resulted in embarrassment to stakeholders and the government recently when the state government announced compensation for damaged crops to farmers in Jhajjar district. Due to a large number of partners for one acre, the government had to issue cheques to each partner separately, which brought down the compensation to a few rupees," he said. He was referring to recent cases wherein the Jhajjar district administration issued cheques for Rs 2 as compensation. |
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Girl run over by truck, villagers block
highway
Jhajjar, November 28 Infuriated over the incident, a large numbers of residents of the village blocked the Jhajjar-Rewari road for about three hours and demanded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for kin of the girl, besides immediate arrest of the truck driver. The deceased, identified as
Ekta, was doing a computer course from a private institute in Jhajjar city. The mishap took place when she was coming back to her home after attending her classes. After alighting from a roadways bus, he was crossing the highway when a speedy truck knocked her down. She reportedly died on the spot. Several villagers rushed to the spot but the truck drive escaped the scene. As the news of Ekta’s death spread in the village, a large number of people gathered at the spot and disrupted the vehicular traffic on the national highway. The protest led to long queues of vehicles on both sides of the road. They placed the body of the girl on the road and demanded compensation for the kin. On getting information about the jam, the police and other administrative officials reached the spot and tried to persuade the villagers to lift the blockade. The protesters cleared the national highway after three hours and the police took the possession of the body for further investigation. The villagers have also threatened that they would block the road again if their demands were not met. |
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Adopt transparent policy: High Court
Chandigarh, November 28 Seeking the quashing of appointments, Victor Robinson of Hisar district alleged adoption of a pick-and-choose policy in the matter of appointments. The petition was placed before the Bench of Justice Rajiv Narain Raina, but was referred to another Bench. Elaborating, he has asserted that state government functionaries appointed their ‘nears and dears’. Jagan Nath was the cousin of Union minister Selja while Savita Tayal was the wife of ML Tayal, who was ‘very close’ to the Haryana Chief Minister. Surender Kumar Sharma was the vice-president of the Sonepat district Congress committee while Harender Pal Singh was the president of the Palwal district Congress committee. Referring to the High Court judgement in the case of Salil Sabhlok versus the Union of India and other respondents, he asserted that the state was required to constitute a search committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary. The committee was required to consider the names which came to its notice or were forwarded to it before preparing a panel of suitable candidates. The panel was then required to be placed before a high-powered committee, comprising the Chief Minister, the Speaker and the Leader of the Opposition. The recommendations were then required to be placed for the Governor’s approval. The respondents, he alleged, were appointed as members by violating the mandate of law laid down by the full Bench of the High Court and upheld by the Supreme Court in Salil Sabhlok case.
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300 police stations to get fingerprint scanning devices
Hisar, November 28 Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Hisar range, SS Kapoor, nodal office of the crime and criminal tracking networking system, told The Tribune that they were in the process of making the equipment available to the police stations. “Around 30 fingerprint scanners are available at the court complexes and some other important places for quick identification of criminals. The availability of devices at police stations will help the police crack unsolved cases with the help ofthe automatic fingerprint identification system, which has around 2 lakh fingerprints stored in it at the state crime record bureau at Madhuban in Karnal district. Through WAN, investigating officers at the police station will quickly get to know the entire criminal record of an arrested criminal,” he said. The Haryana Police is also set to launch web portal soon to provide e-services to the people who will be able to apply and check the status of various services. “The software of the web portal is ready and we are setting up the operating set of the portal at the police headquarters. Hopefully the website will be functional by the first week of new year,” the IGP said. He added that services introduced through the citizen charter at Hisar range police districts would be available at the website where citizens would be able to apply for these services and check the status of their applications. The complainant would receive an SMS on his mobile phone immediately after registration of a complaint and a unique ID would be issued to the person for checking the status of the complaint later.
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Youth tied to car, dragged to death; friend beaten up
Yamunanagar, November 28 The police said they had registered a case against 22 persons on a complaint filed by Mohit’s father Raj Singh Rana of Tirath Nagar, who alleged his family had old animosity with Kashmira Singh. In his complaint, Rana said a few days ago, Kashmira had been attacked after which a case of attempt to murder was registered against his family members, including Mohit. Rahul, who had been kept in a room near the paper mill, managed to escape and reported the matter to the family. As the family members went out in search of Mohit, they discovered that he had been killed and his body had been dumped near a bridge on the canal adjoining Tirath Nagar. Meanwhile, Rana accused a Congress leader and husband of a local municipal official of having been involved in the crime. Following the incident, the police registered a case against Kashmira Singh and 21 others. However, no arrests have been confirmed as yet. The police said some sharp-edged weapon had been used in the assault.
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State bureaucracy, police top heavy
Chandigarh, November 28 The top heavy administration is the reflection of Hooda government’s liberal policy of keeping
senior babus and police officers in good humour and reduce stagnation at the middle and
top levels, sources told The Tribune. The trend of designating Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretaries as Additional Chief Secretaries started last year in the backdrop of supercession of a couple of officers by PK Choudhery when he took over as the Chief Secretary on April 1. Officers of the 1982 batch of the IAS were designated as Additional Chief Secretaries. Recently, officers of the 1983 batch of the IAS were included in this privileged category, taking their number to 10. Currently, Krishna Mohan, SC Chaudhary, Shakuntla
Jakhu, Anand Mohan Sharan (recently went on Central deputation), Ramendra
Jakhu, Parveen Kumar Gupta, Yudhvir Singh Malik, Rajan Gupta, RR Fuliya and Sarban Singh are holding the post of Additional Chief Secretary. Besides, there are about 30 officers in the rank of Financial Commissioner-cum-Principal Secretary. Meanwhile, four police officers, Satyendra Kumar, RK
Vachher, Anil Dawra and Parminder Rai, are in the DGP rank in the state, where the crime graph has been soaring over the past few years. Besides, 16 officers who hold the rank of ADGP are Yash Pal
Singal, Mohinder Lal, Laik Ram Dabas, SS Deswal, Mohinder Singh Mann, Baljit Singh
Sandhu, Kushal Pal Singh, Anant Kumar Dhul, K Selvaraj, Sheel Madhur, Binay Kumar
Sinha, Krishan Kumar Sindhu, KK Sharma, PR Deo, KK Mishra and V Kamaraja. Seniors aplenty
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Yogeshwar, Sushil to miss C’wealth meet
Sonepat, November 28 National wrestling coaches Jagmal and Vinod, who are supervising the training of the wrestlers here at SAI Centre, said today that the Wrestling Federation of India had taken decision that only those wrestlers who participated in the national wrestling championship and won the gold and silver medals in their weight category would participate in the Commonwealth meet. As Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar had not participated in the national wrestling championship that concluded at Kolkata, their names were not considered for the Commonwealth Wrestling Championship, they explained. Raj Singh, national general secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India, said two teams in each weight groups of the free-style and Greeco-Roman category would participate in the championship. The gold medal winners in the national championship will members of the A team and silver medallists the B team.
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Principal Secy pays surprise visit to Ambala Civil Hospital
Ambala, November 28 Sandhu first of all visited the trauma center where the emergency ward of the hospital has also been setup. She expressed dissatisfaction over the position of sanitation at the centre. She also talked to the patients who narrated their grievances to Sandhu. Later, she visited the all the wards of the hospital and directed the Civil Surgeon and PMO to take immediate steps to provide basic amenities to the patients in the hospital. She also asked the hospital authorities to provide neat and clean bed sheets to the patients. One of the patients complained that the ultrasound machine of the trauma center had not been working for the past several months. Sandhu said the Health Department had been giving training to operate the ultrasound machine and the problem of radiologist at the centre would be solved soon. She said the government was committed to provide best medical facilities to patients in government hospital. She assured that that all the requirements of the hospital would be fulfilled soon.
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Bishnoi banks on anti-incumbency to make Hisar rally a success
Bhiwani, November 28 “Every section of society is fed up with the nine-year Congress rule in Haryana as the government has been pursuing anti-people policies. The condition of civic infrastructure is extremely poor. The lack of transport facilities, education and employment opportunities have pushed the people to a corner and they are looking for an opportunity to get rid of the incumbent regime,” Bishnoi said this while addressing a series of public meetings in Bhiwani villages today. The HJC supremo said the Vijay-rally in Hisar would show the strong anti-government current and the rally would provide people a platform to express their resentment against the anti-people policies of the state government. |
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Awareness march marks World Organ Donation Day
Sonepat, November 28 Dr Sethi exhorted people to donate organs to save lives. He said organ donation should become a movement. Anand Kumar said the samiti had so far obtained the will of 1,200 persons for organ and body donation. He, however, lamented that this effort could prove useless, if proper medical facilities for organ transplantation after death were not available in the area. |
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Death in custody: Charge sheet likely next month
Ambala, November 28 Notably, two dalit youths were allegedly kept in an illegal confinement at the police post no.2 in a case of theft. The police had tied their legs but they managed to escape from there. Next day, the body of one of the youths was recovered from near the rail track. Later, the entire staff of the police post was placed under suspension and three of the police officials, including the in charge of the police post, were arrested The report of the judicial probe and the report of the enquiry carried out by the Ambala ADC have been sent to the crime branch. Sources said both the report had indicated that the youths were kept in an illegal confinement. The judicial report clarified that the police officials were drunk. The probe could not establish the motive behind the murder. |
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Rs 4,000-cr plan to strengthen power distribution
Chandigarh, November 28 It was revealed by Devender Singh, Principal Secretary (Power), while delivering the keynote address in a seminar on “Power availability and industrial growth in Haryana” organised in
the India International Trade Fair at in Delhi recently. Representatives of various industrial organisations and senior officers of the Haryana Power Utilities were present in the seminar. Devender Singh said
the government was making all-out efforts to create additional capacity of generation to meet the increasing demand for power, which was 8-10 per cent per annum at the state level and 15-20 per cent per annum in Gurgaon and Faridabad. The power utilities were likely to make arrangements for an installed
generating capacity of 18,000 to 19,000 MW by 2016, he said. |
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Harassment by in-laws lands three in hospital
Sirsa, November 28 In another incident, a 24-year-old woman from Ghukanwali, who had married in a court after eloping with her husband, was shifted to a private hospital with severe burn injuries. Later, she was referred to the PGI, Rohtak. Her husband’s family maintained that she sustained burn injuries while working in the kitchen. In yet another incident, a man allegedly attempted to kill his wife by running her over with his car. The victim, who had a love marriage with her husband six years ago, alleged that her husband was seeing another woman and wanted to eliminate her.
— TNS |
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Road cleaning machine introduced in Kaithal
Kaithal, November 28 SK
Aggarwal, XEN, PWD (B&R), said a contractor had been assigned the task of cleaning the roads. He said PWD Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala wanted the roads clean so that commuters could have a hassle-free drive. He said initially two roads had been chosen but soon other roads might be covered under the cleaning operation. Aggarwal further said the machine could perform work of 100 safai karamcharis in a shift and its performance was excellent. |
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Sugar mill to spend Rs 3.48 crore on facilities for farmers
Sonepat, November 28 The mill had set the target of crushing 25 lakh quintals of sugarcane this season, the DC said. He added that the mill would also arrange interest-free loans for cane growers from different banks. The DC said the mill would give Rs 301, Rs 295 and Rs 290 per quintal on the purchase of early, mid and late varieties respectively. |
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On World Organ Donation Day today, the district unit of the Samaj Kalyan Shiksha Samiti organised a march to encourage people for organ donation. Carrying placards and led by district convener Anand Kumar, the participants held a meeting a a banquet hall on Gohana road.
