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Power engineers urge CM to allow replication of Punjab model in state
Karnal Mayor, councillors protest lack of power
Mayor Renu Bala Gupta, Senior Deputy Mayor Krishan Lal Garg, Deputy Mayor Manoj Wadwa and other members of the municipal corporation stage a dharna at the committee chowk in Karnal on Monday.
Tribune photo: Ravi Kumar
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Vigilance ADGP in contempt soup
Changes in anti-rape law hasty: Law officer to HC
INLD not in touch with BJP for tie-up
Youth dies after donating blood to mother
6 die in road mishaps
People protest youth’s death
People of the Valmiki community stage a protest in Yamunanagar on Monday.
A Tribune photograph
HJC demands adequate land compensation
Panchayat bypoll dates announced
Coop mills produce over 20,000 quintals of sugar
AAP leader adresses a public meeting in Gurgaon on Sunday. Tribune Photo: Sayeed Ahmed
Rs 700 cr for 4-laning of Kaithal-Ambala highway: Surjewala
Students protest rising crime against women Man beaten to death, ex-DSP’s son arrested LeT man surrenders Over 100 attend physiotherapy camp 5 NRIs booked in dowry case Seven women injured as bus overturns Randeep Surjewala unveils statue of Lala Lajpat Rai Additional charge Body found in well
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Power engineers urge CM to allow replication of Punjab model in state
Ambala/Yamunanagar, December 16 The federation stated that reforms, especially in the rural sector, had remained the most challenging for the power sector. High transmission and distribution losses, along with power thefts, eroded the revenue of distribution utilities, which had a cascading effect on their profitability and also the tariff remained high. The NIPEF, in its letter, claimed that in Punjab, where transmission and distribution losses were in the range of 22 to 25 per cent till 2008, a pilot project was launched in 2009 for taking meters outside consumer premises and installing these on poles or in pillar boxes. The scheme, funded by Rural Electrification Corporation for Rs 800 crore, enabled taking out meters of 20 lakh consumers in rural and semi rural areas and gave excellent results. The losses on these feeders, which were in the range of 50 to 80 per cent earlier, were reduced to 20 to 25 per cent. The project also helped the power utilities improve the quality of power supply while the losses were brought down from 22 per cent to 16.8 per cent. The federation said with another investment of Rs 1,000 crore, the Punjab power utilities were now aiming to bring down the losses to 10 to 12 per cent by shifting 67 lakh meters from consumer premises. It may be mentioned that NIPEF had earlier given two presentations to Discoms management and senior engineers earlier this year. Devinder Singh, then CMD of the Discoms, had started the process of shifting the meters in select rural feeders with incentive of urban pattern supply on such feeders. The Federation has also requested the Chief Ministers of northern states to reject the new concept of supply licensee being proposed by Ministry of Power as an amendment to the Electricity Act 2003. They claimed that the concept of supply licensee would be against the interest of large sections of consumers as well as Discoms and instead, such measures should be adopted which help the government agencies make the power utilities profit earning entities. |
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Karnal Mayor, councillors protest lack of power
Karnal, December 16 Alleging that the basic objective of local self governance had been defeated due to the inherent biases and non-cooperative attitude of the administration, Mayor Renu Bala said the councillors had no financial or administrative powers. Projects worth Rs 10 crore were passed by the house in two meetings but not even a single penny had been received and no development was taking place, she added. In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, the Governor and the Speaker, the councillors rued that they were “powerless”, the MC staff was not accountable to them, no development work was being carried out in 15 odd villages which came under the new MC three-and-a-half-years ago and the officials were charging 18-23 per cent commission from the contractors. About 100 posts had been lying vacant in the corporation, including 76 functional posts like district town planner, assistant town planner and architect, naib tehsildar, kanoongo, patwari, draftsman, accounts officer, clerks, medical officer, office manager, licence assistants and tax inspectors, they said. Due to staff crunch, the residents were a harried lot. Also, the proposal to open multipurpose windows to facilitate people had been hanging fire for the past several months. Om Prakash, a resident, rued that sweepers were working as clerks, leading to wrong entries in birth and death certificates and it was a herculean task to get the names corrected. Demands
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MLAs’ feat for Guinness!
Chandigarh-based advocate HC Arora wants the names of 13 Haryana legislators in the Guinness Book of Records for their endurance and mobility. Interestingly, Arora based his claim on a recent CAG report which stated that the MLAs covered a distance ranging from 500 to 1,283 km per day while claiming LTC reimbursement. He wonders how our elected representatives could cover such long distances (obviously in cars) on the rickety Indian roads when relaxation is top priority during LTC. Well, was the distance travelled on ‘papers only’ or the politicians performed this feat by ‘going the extra mile’. Anyway, over to the Guinness Book of Records management to verify the feat of ‘mobile’ netas. Mistaken identity
A huge drama unfolded in Naraingarh when a cop who had just got up in the morning and was still rubbing his eyes, spotted a ‘panther’ entering an animal shed right outside the police station. Soon, the panicked cop spread the word and a team of forest officials under a range officer reached there, well equipped with a cage and other gear to catch the panther. The news also caught the fancy of local journalists, who rushed to the spot. Some overenthusiastic mediapersons even scaled the boundary walls of the animal shed to capture the animal in their cameras. However, 15 minutes of extensive search by the forest officials brought to the fore the fact that the panther spotted by the cop was actually a well-grown cat. Rehab blues
Even as the case of rehabilitation of Mirchpur violence Dalit victims is in the Supreme Court, the issue continues to haunt the district administration time and again. Recently, when a Panjab University's professor visited the victims for research purpose, the administration swung into action issuing a press note attributing to one of the Dalit members of the village panchayat. While Professor Gopal Iyer met the victims at the farmhouse, the panch issued a statement detailing of the steps taken by the district authorities to showcase its humane face. Hope this alacrity is witnessed at the time of crisis too as record showed that caste rows have snowballed due to slow reaction of the authorities concerned. Hazare fans
Chautala clan seems to have special fascination for social activist Anna Hazare. Members of the Chautala clan leave no opportunity to be seen with Anna Hazare, whenever he sits on a dharna for a Jan Lokpal. The first time Anna started his dharna at Jantar Mantar in April, 2011, former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala went there to express solidarity. It is another matter that those sitting at Anna’s fast venue were so hostile towards politicians that Chautala as well as Uma Bharti were booed and forced to leave. However, this did not deter Chautalas from expressing their admiration towards the social activist and they invited Anna Hazare to Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal Vidyapeeth when Anna was in Sirsa during his nationwide tour in April this year. Anna avoided visit to the institution despite accepting the invite first because his lieutenants advised him that it will not be advisable to share the stage with Chautalas when two seniormost members of the clan are in jail for JBT teachers’ recruitment scam. However, Chautalas’ love for Anna is unflinching as Dushyant Singh Chautala, Ajay Singh Chautala’s elder son, went to Ralegan Sidhi to deliver a letter professing his party’s support for Jan Lokpal. Innovative techniques
Haryanavis have always been known for their innovative techniques. Their innovative skills have been seen at their best at Gorakhpur in Haryana where the government acquired over 1,503 acres for the upcoming Gorakhpur nuclear plant as farmers of Gorakhpur have been able to “grow” trees overnight on their land to claim handsome compensation from NPCIL. For the purpose of assessing compensation for the fixtures, the authorities had done a survey two years ago. Even in their initial survey, the authorities had adopted a lenient attitude to keep farmers, many of whom were opposed to the acquisition of their land, in good spirits and even shown bushes and herbs as trees to benefit them. However, farmers have been approaching the authorities with resurveys with more trees suddenly appearing on their land. Much to the surprise of other villagers, hundreds of grown fruit trees overnight came up on the land of a farmer recently. Those who have been watching farmers “grow” trees to make an easy buck overnight allege that some unscrupulous officials of the Revenue Department are also hand in glove in the entire game. — Contributed by Pradeep Sharma,
Manish Sirhindi, Deepinder Deswal and Sushil Manav |
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Vigilance ADGP in contempt soup
Chandigarh, December 16 Justice Chauhan issued the notice while allowing the bail application of revenue clerk Chattarpal Singh. Chattarpal Singh is the only official to be arrested so far. On the previous date of hearing,the ADGP was asked by Justice Chauhan to file a status report in the matter and be present before the Bench during the hearing of the case. As the case came up for resumed hearing this morning, Justice Chauhan was informed that neither the status report had been filed in the matter nor was the summoned officer present in the court. Justice Chauhan was of the prima facie opinion that the conduct of the officer concerned amounted to the obstruction in the administration of justice; and, thus, was contemptuous. Taking serious note of the developments, Justice Chauhan asked the ADGP (Vigilance) to explain why he should not be proceeded against in the matter. Justice Chauhan was told on the previous date of hearing that the police was not arresting the tehsildar and the naib tehsildar on the ground of their non-availability. The police had, in fact, claimed that they could not be found even though raids were carried out to track them. Justice Chauhan was also told during the hearing of the revenue clerk’s bail application that the officers concerned were not only drawing their salaries but also signing files and attending the office. On the other hand, the revenue clerk had been arrested in the case. |
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Changes in anti-rape law hasty: Law officer to HC
Chandigarh, December 16 As the court took up a PIL filed by advocate H C Arora for enforcement of laws amended for investigation of rape cases with effect from February 3, the law officer said the amendments were made in a hasty manner and were difficult to implement. The officer was referring to a prayer made in the PIL that investigation into rape cases should be entrusted only to woman police officers and the statement or complaint by the victim must not be recorded by male cops. The petitioner submitted that the violation of the provisions made in the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, pertaining to investigation into rape cases, was now made a punishable offence under Section 166A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). He also refuted the contention of the law officer by arguing that amendments were well thought of and made on the basis of recommendations made by Justice J S Verma committee. “It is the business of the government to recruit more woman police officers for enforcing new provisions of law, but they cannot avoid implementation of these provisions,” Arora argued. Taking up the matter, the Bench observed: “We can give you reasonable time for raising infrastructure, but you will have to implement the newly amended laws.” The bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Augustine George Masih, adjourned the hearing to February 3 and observed in its order that respondents will have to deposit Rs 10,000 if they did not file a reply within four weeks from today.
— TNS |
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INLD not in touch with BJP for tie-up
Jind, December 16 “We are not in touch with the
BJP. Neither have they approached us, nor have we made any attempt. There are many months to go for the general election and anything can happen anytime. Let the HJC-BJP alliance break, only then can we say anything,” said INLD leader Abhey Singh Chautala at the party office here. Attacking the state government, he accused Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda of pledging government property to run development schemes. Referring to the 31 announcements recently made by
Hooda, Abhey alleged that not one had been started as the government needed thousands of
crores. “The government has been taking a monthly loan of Rs 800 crore for salaries of employees and other expenses. The Chief Minister is busy making new announcements to start welfare schemes, but no one knows how to finance the schemes,” Abhey said. The INLD leader alleged that not only Congress leaders, but some senior officers were involved in spending crores without foolproof planning as well. He announced that the
INLD, after coming to power, would order a high-level inquiry into all development grants spent by the Hooda
government. Abhey said all recruitments and the role of senior officers in various scams would be inquired. “There are big scams in all recruitments and development works. We promise that we will punish all those involved in these scams,” he added. |
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Youth dies after donating blood to mother
Rohtak, December 16 While the family members of the youth,
Sonu, a resident of Julana in Jind district, alleged that he had ailment, doctors at the PGIMS maintain that such a possibility could not be ruled out. Sonu was a
labourer. Sources said in such cases, hypovolemic shock could be the causative factor. Hypovolemic shock is an emergency condition in which severe blood and fluid loss make the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body. This type of shock can cause many organs to stop working. They, however, maintained that the actual cause of the death could be ascertained only after the post-mortem report. Autopsy of the youth’s body has been conducted and viscera has been sent for further forensic examination, including
histo-pathological and chemical analysis and blood tests. Meanwhile, the family members of the youth have lodged a complaint with the local police, in which they have alleged that it was a matter of medical negligence, as the necessary parameters had not been followed prior to blood extraction. On the other hand, Dr Chand Singh
Dhull, Director, PGIMS Director, said preliminary investigation had revealed that after donating blood, the youth had consumed fruit juice, which might have entered his windpipe instead of food pipe, resulting in choking. He asserted that appropriate action would be taken if the death was found to be caused due to negligence of any hospital staff. Prof PK
Sehgal, head of the department of blood transfusion at the PGIMS, maintained that appropriate medical procedure had been followed for extracting blood from the youth and he was allowed to donate blood only after checking his age, weight and
haemoglobin, which were found adequate for blood donation. |
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6 die in road mishaps
Karnal, December 16 Two motorbike riders died after a tractor-trailer hit them near Kheri Mann Singh village late last night. The deceased were identified as Intzar (27) of Janesro and Yamin (22) of Kehri Man Singh. They were rushed to hospital where doctors declared them brought dead. A case has been registered against the tractor driver. Suresh Kumar of Pati Kalyana, Panipat, died on the spot after a car hit his vehicle near Gharonda last evening. The police have booked the car driver. Two killed
Jhajjar: Bhaijaan (60) of Lakhimpur village was knocked down by a car on the Jhajjar-Gurgaon road here today. The car then collided with a tree and overturned, leaving its driver, Krishan Kumar of Baamdaula village here, injured seriously. Bhaijaan, a honey seller, died on the spot, while krishan died while being taken to a hospital. Bhaijaan's body was sent to the Jhajjar civil hospital in Jhajjar for postmortem. |
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People protest youth’s death
Yamunanagar, December 16 The agitators were led by Amarpal Arya of the Aam Aadmi Party. Ramesh Kumar Valmiki said his son’s body was found floating in a canal near Shergarh village on November 29. Rajat was working as laboratory technician at a private hospital. Ramesh alleged that the police were hand in glove with the culprits. “My son was killed by three youths of the village. The Jathlana police did not take action. The case was transferred to the CIA, but they did not do anything either. They have not arrested the culprits yet,” he said. Superintendent of Police Sibas Kaviraj said the investigation was shifted to the CIA-II. “Three youths were interrogated, but prima facie, it seemed to be a case of suicide. We have decided to take the suspects into custody and they will be further interrogated,” he said. |
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HJC demands adequate land compensation
Kaithal, December 16 He said if the affected farmers were not suitably compensated, they would be financially ruined as most of them had been left with very small land holdings. Earlier, the government had acquired land of farmers for construction of Hansi-Butana link canal, which had been lying unused. As result of the canal project, their lands had been bifurcated into pieces, causing great inconvenience to them. The construction of more bypasses on the national highway would further aggravate the problem. The 18-km-long bypass from Titram to Kerok village was unnecessary as the existing bypass, if widened, could serve the desired purpose, Rao added. He said if the farmers were not given adequate compensation for the acquired land, his party would strongly oppose the move. |
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Panchayat bypoll dates announced
Chandigarh, December 16 While stating this here today, State Election Commissioner Dharam Vir said nominations could be filed from December 16 to 17 from 10 am to 4 pm and information would be furnished by the candidate to the returning pfficer
(panchayat) concerned in the prescribed format before 10 am on December 18. Scrutiny would be conducted from 10 am to 4 pm on December 18 and candidature could be withdrawn up to 4 pm by December 20. The work of preparation of list of contesting candidates and allotment of symbol for elections would be carried out immediately after the expiry of the period of withdrawal of candidature on December 20. He said polling, if required, would be conducted from 8 am to 4 pm on December 29 and votes would be counted at the polling station immediately after the close of the poll. For the election of the member of the panchayat samitis and zila
parishads, counting would be held on December 30 at 9 am. |
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Coop mills produce over 20,000 quintals of sugar
Chandigarh, December 16 As much as 26,600 quintals of sugarcane had been crushed by Cooperative Sugar Mill, Rohtak; 17,000 quintals by Cooperative Sugar Mills, Jind; and 16,400 quintals by the Palwal Sugar Mill . He said the Cooperative Sugar Mills of Rohtak, Jind and Palwal had produced 1,850, 1,315 and 1,460 quintals of sugar, respectively. The Cooperative Sugar Mill, Sonepat, had crushed 16,000 quintals of sugarcane and produced 1,250 quintals of
sugar. The Cooperative Sugar Mill, Shahbad, had crushed 40,000 quintals. The spokesman said the Cooperative Sugar Mill, Kaithal, had crushed 24,000 quintals of sugarcane and produced 2,300 quintals of sugar. Similarly, Cooperative Sugar Mill, Gohana, had crushed 25,300 quintals of sugarcane while the one in Meham had crushed 22,750 quintals. |
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Over 500 attend AAP volunteer meet
Gurgaon, December 16 Elated at the stunning performance of the party in the recently concluded Assembly elections in Delhi, they were on a high and raring to go. "Till the Delhi elections results were out, we were called stargazers. Today it is different. Young MNC executives and bankers who had long been termed politically dormant came to kickstart the largest political change aimed to ensure that politics was no longer about money, power and caste, but the people," said AAP state convener Ashawant Gupta. "Our civic issues are worse than in Delhi and it is high time the common man takes things in his hands. The AAP is not a political party, but a modern version of swaraj," said Nisha Singh, independent councillor. "Now people are not saying let politicians handle it and it is not our problem. People are saying we will get it done. That is empowerment," said volunteer Vishal Garg, a manager with the HSBC. |
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Rs 700 cr for 4-laning of Kaithal-Ambala highway: Surjewala
Chandigarh, December 16 He said with the approval of this project, the long-standing demand of the people of the area had been fulfilled. He said for the development of Kaithal, an 18-km separate bypass would be constructed. A corridor from Kotputli to Ambala would be setup at a cost of Rs 1,300 crore, which would open business and employment opportunities for the residents of Kaithal, he added. |
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Karnal Municipal Corporation, staged a dharna outside their own office today and said henceforth the councillors would sit on 24-hour indefinite dharna in front of the MC complex till they were empowered.
Members of the Valmiki community at Alahar village staged a demonstration at the Mini-Secretariat and handed over a memorandum for the Governor to Deputy Commissioner Mandeep Singh Barar here today.
They were demanding that the case of investigation into the alleged murder of 18-year-old
Rajat, alias Monti, should be handed over to the CBI and stringent action should be taken against culprits.
