Chandigarh, December 11
Factionalism in the Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) came to the fore again today during a meeting of the Scheduled Caste (SC) Department organised to elicit the views of the Dalit community to be incorporated in the Congress manifesto for the general election next year.

Despite party high command’s repeated diktats to the state unit to remain united, HPCC chief Phool Chand Mullana, All-India Congress Committee SC cell chairperson K Raju and Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal had a tough time controlling the agitated leaders of different factions, who gave vent to their ire against their political adversaries within the Congress.

Union Minister Selja was specially under attack from MLA Shakuntla Khatak and senior Dalit leaders Raj Kumar Valmiki and Dilu Ram Bazigar, who took strong exception to her public utterances against Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Mullana.

Though Selja and her loyalist legislators Rajpal Bhukhri and Naresh Selvel were conspicuous by their absence, other delegates supporting her opposed their tirade against the Union minister.

This led to commotion and noisy scenes for several minutes during the meeting, attended by several legislators and district and block leaders of the Dalit community.

Selja supporters, on their part, came down heavily on Mullana and his faction for the ‘sorry state’ of the state unit.

With different speakers on their feet at the same time, commotion and noisy scenes ruled the roost during the meeting. Senior leaders had tough time controlling the situation.

Ironically, Raju called upon members of the Dalit community to put up a united front and gear up for general election and state Assembly elections.

On her part, Bhukkal assured Raju that every effort would be made to have better coordination between the state government and the party organisation in the run-up to the elections next year.

Meanwhile, leaders like Babu Lal Ravi alleged that the SC community was not getting the full benefits of quota in schools and subsisided food under the Food Security Act.

Rohtak, December 11
Residents of recently regularised colonies of Rohtak have opposed the levying of “undue and unreasonable” development charges.

Th\e local municipal councillors are in a tight spot as residents are mounting pressure on them to come to their rescue, while the Chief Minister has outrightly rejected their demand to withdraw the development charges.

Hundreds of affected residents staged a protest demonstration at the Chhotu Ram Chowk here yesterday to press for the withdrawal of the charges.

It may be pertinent to mention here that as many as 70 colonies of Rohtak had been regularised in 2004, while 34 more colonies were regularised recently.

The protesters lamented that many such colonies still lacked even the basic amenities, and hence the developmental charges were not justified. They also burnt copies of the notices issued to them in this regard.

They maintained that a number of colonies had been regularised in Delhi as well, but the Delhi Government had not levied charges on the residents of those colonies.

Pointing out that the state government had released a massive amount of money for the districts falling under the national capital region, the leaders of the protesting residents questioned, where had that money gone.

The residents, who have lodged their protest against the development charges on several occasions, have given a seven- day ultimatum to the authorities concerned, following which they will start a relay fast.

Chandigarh, December 11
The Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear to the governments of Punjab and Haryana, along with the Chandigarh Administration, that they must accept and implement in true spirit and command the judgements that have attained finality; and grant same relief to “other members of the cadre whose claim was based upon identical facts and points of law”.

Justice MMS Bedi made this clear during the hearing of a petition filed by Jagir Singh against UHBVN and others. He submitted a legal notice on August 16 for grant of higher pay scale with all consequential benefits. Disposing of the petition, Justice Bedi directed an Executive Engineer to decide the legal notice by passing a speaking order within three months after receiving the order’s certified copy.

Referring to the HC judgement pronounced in 2002 in the case of Satbir Singh versus the State of Haryana on the issue of implementing court orders, Justice Bedi asserted that the directions contained in the ruling and circulated to the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana, along with the UT Adviser, would be taken into consideration.

Quoting the judgement, Justice Bedi recapped, “Wherever the right of the parties have been settled by a judgement of the court, the state has taken all remedies available to it in law against the judgement even up to the highest court of the land. When the judgement has attained finality, the State must accept the judgement and implement it in its true spirit and command.

“The state government shall, as expeditiously as possible and in any case not later than four months, re-act and respond to a legal notice or representation served upon it by any of its employees in redressal of his grievance or grant of relief, which has been granted to his co-employee similarly situated, in furtherance to the judgement of the court.

“In the event an employee is compelled to approach the court of law, whereupon the court awards interest and/or costs while allowing such a petition, the expenditure incurred by the State, including costs or interest paid in furtherance to the orders of the court should be recovered from the erring officer(s).

“The quarters concerned of the government are expected to work out the details in furtherance to the above directions and issue pervasive, but definite, instructions to all its departments forthwith to ensure compliance.”

Sirsa, December 11
The police have arrested three persons in connection with the wheat seed scam in the Haryana Seed Development Corporation (HSDC) here. The scam involving siphoning off subsidised seeds meant for farmers by some officials of the corporation in connivance with a trader.

Though the police is yet to arrest the four main accused, three persons—Pushpank, son of Assistant Marketing Officer of the HSDC Duli Chand Chhapola, and two salesmen at Ding and Abubshahar outlets of the corporation Bansi Lal Bhatia and SS Verma, respectively-—have been arrested.

The main accused were booked after the scam came to the fore courtesy a sting operation by activists of the Haryana Kisan Manch led by its president Prahlad Singh Bharukhera.

Additional Superintendent of Police Rajender Meena, who is handling the case, confirmed the arrests and said the police was conducting raids for the arrest of the others.

Neither Pushpank nor Bhatia and Verma figured in the initial FIR lodged by the police last week, but their names came to the fore during investigation by the police.

It has been found that even as the police was in the process of registering the case, Pushpank went to sales outlet of the HSDC in Ding with the payment of wheat seed bags supplied to Sunil Chawla, a local trader, where Bhatia allegedly issued fake bills in name of farmers as a cover-up exercise.

Similarly, Om Pal Singh Panwar, the now sacked manager of the HSDC, went to Abubshahr sales outlet and gave payment to Verma, who also issued fake bills in the name of farmers, so that the scam could be covered up later.

Both Bhatia and Verma have admitted this fact in their statements before the three-member inquiry committee of the HSDC that conducted a departmental inquiry in Sirsa after the scam came to light.

On December 4, Bharukhera and his activists of the Haryana Kisan Manch had conducted a sting operation and approached Deputy Commissioner J Ganesan with a complaint that two truckloads of the HSDC seeds had been supplied to a local trader.

The trucks were supposed to go to Ding and Abubshahar, but instead landed in the godown of a private dealer at Sirsa.

Gurgaon, December 11
A student of an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) was crushed to death by a Haryana Roadways bus here today.

In protest against the incident, students of the institute threw stones at buses on the Gurgaon-Mehrauli road. About half a dozen vehicles were damaged in the incident.

However, the situation was brought under control after a contingent of the police reached the spot. Senior police officials also rushed to the spot.

The victim, identified as Abhimanyu, died on the way to hospital.

He was a resident of Mohammadpur village.

The bus driver fled the spot after the accident.

A few days ago, another student was crushed to death by a roadways bus near Dronacharya Government College in the district.

The incident had sparked a violent protest.

Kurukshetra, December 11
Governor Jagannath Pahadia inaugurated the state-level exhibition as part of the Kurukshetra Utsav- Gita Jayanti Samaroh 2013 celebrations with religious fervour on the banks of Barahmasarovar here today.

After the inauguration, Pahadia, accompanied by his wife, Shanti Pahadia, had a round of the craft mela and the stalls depicting the achievements of 30 departments of the Haryana Government.

Pahadia was also presented famous jalebi at the stall of Maatu Ram jalebi maker of Gohana.

A ‘Ghori’ dance was performed by artistes of Rajasthan.

On this occasion, Pahadia honoured Kachhi Ghori dance artistes and the renowned rangoli artiste Vandana Joshi, who has been registered in the Guinness Book of World Records.

After visiting the craft mela, Pahadia inaugurated the Bhajan Sarita programme.

He also honoured Aganihotri Brothers-Davesh and Rakesh- by presenting mementos and shawls to them.

Rangoli and collage making competitions were also organised on the banks of Barahmasarovar, while a two-day national Sanskrit seminar was jointly organised by the Haryana Sanskrit Academy and the Institute of Indological Studies, Kurukshetra University, at Bhagwad Geeta Sadan of the university.

Chandigarh, December 11
Another Delhi real estate developer, AP Real Estate Private Limited, has lost the licence to develop a residential project in Sonepat for failure to meet various statutory requirements, including non-payment of external development charges (EDC) and infrastructure development charges (IDC).

According to an order passed by Anurag Rastogi, Director-General, Town and Country Planning, the licence has been cancelled for a group housing colony over more than 12 acres at Sultanpur in Sonepat for non-payment of EDC and IDC, non-submission of the status of the development of the project at the site, besides failure to get NOC from the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The builder was silent on the status of mandatory allotment of dwelling units under the economically weaker sections (EWS).

AP Real Estate Private Limited was granted the licence to develop the colony for a period of two years on December 24, 2007. Later, the developer applied for renewal of licence for a period of two years (up to December 23, 2011). However, the renewal of licence till December 23, 2013, was not applied by the developer.

However, vide letter dated December 28, 2012, the builder sent a copy of the letter dated September 26, 2012, containing a request for renewal of licence and asking for details of outstanding dues.

Following default on payment of the dues, a demand notice was issued to the firm on January 21, 2013, for the recovery of EDC and IDC. However, the developer neither paid any EDC and IDC, nor submitted the revalidated bank guarantees. By February 8, 2013, the total outstanding amount of EDC had gone up to Rs 24.36 crore and IDC Rs 3.19 crore, the Director-General's order asserted.

Before cancellation of licence, an opportunity of personal hearing was granted to the developer on February 12, 2013. Vinod Kumar, authorised signatory, demanded another personal hearing due to unavoidable circumstances.

The hearing was adjourned to September 29, 2013, where Vineet Kumar, another authorised signatory, sought adjournment with new date for hearing fixed for November 8, 2013. However, taking all facts into account, Rastogi refused to renew the licence, which automatically resulted in its cancellation.

Causes of cancellation Failure to pay EDC (Rs 24.36 cr) and IDC (Rs 3.19 cr) Non-submission of status of development at site No NOC from Centre submitted to state government No payment made even after personal hearings

Rewari, December 11
The police have arrested Karambir, an alleged kidnapper of a teenaged girl, from a roadways bus at Mahendergarh, about 55-km from here, yesterday.

The police also recovered the kidnapped girl, a student of Class IX and a resident of Sohla village in Mahendergarh district, from the bus.

After medical examination of the girl, she was restored to her parents. Karambir was produced in a court which remanded him in 14-day judicial custody.

The police added rape charge to the FIR that was earlier registered for abduction on a complaint filed by the victim’s father.

Sirsa, December 11
Twelve days after a man murdered his wife and two children and threw their bodies into the Rajasthan canal at Nathor in the district, the police today recovered the body of the woman from the canal.

The body of 30-year-old Suman came on the surface of water today after possibly remaining trapped in bushes in the canal.

The police had already recovered the body of her 8-year-old son Saurabh on December 5 while the body of her daughter Ravina (10) is yet to be found.

Vinod (32), who worked as driver on a school bus, had lodged a complaint with the police on December 1 that his wife Suman along with his two children was missing since November 30.

The police got suspicious, and questioned Vinod who admitted to have killed his family by drugging them with sleeping pills laced burfi and then strangulating them. He later threw their bodies into the canal passing near his village.

Karnal, December 11
Four persons were killed and 10 others injured in three road accidents during the past 24 hours in the district.

Gurjeet (19) and Bittoo (23), both residents of Salwan village, died on the spot when a speeding vehicle hit their motorcycle near Gagsina village last night.

In another incident, two persons were killed when their canter collided with a tractor-trolley near Bhutan Kheri village. The victims have been identified as Manoj Kumar (32) of Muniapur village and driver Mangat Ram (40) of Jyotisar in Kurukshetra. In yet another incident, 10 labourers were injured when their three-wheeler turned turtle near Uchani village this morning.

Sonepat, December 11
The police have nabbed Satish of Chuhan Joshi village with 98 fake currency notes of Rs 1,000 denomination. He was today produced in a court which remanded him in police custody.

DSP Satish Kumar said on a tip-off, the police arrested Satish from Sector-12 here last evening.

He said Satish confessed that he had purchased fake currency notes of Rs 1 lakh for Rs 40,000 from West Bengal. He also confessed to have cashed fake currency notes of Rs 15,000 and Rs 40,000 earlier. — OC

Ambala, December 11
The police have arrested two youths when they were fleeing after snatching the purse of a woman here last evening.