Chandigarh, January 15
Wailing hooters and flashing red beacons will be passé for Haryana politicians and babus with the State Transport Department having finalised the beneficiaries.

The department has shrunk the quota of beneficiaries significantly and decided to limit the “red light” privilege to the Chief Minister, his council of ministers and a couple of others only, sources said.

While the Chief Minister, ministers and the Speaker have been allowed red beacon with a flasher, the Ministers of State and the Deputy Minister will have the authority to use the light but without a flasher. The Chief Parliamentary Secretaries, too, may have to do away with the red light since there is no provision for them in the list.

Though there are a number of chairpersons appointed to various boards and corporations, only the HPSC Chairman has been authorised to use the red beacon with a flasher along with High Court judges. The Deputy Chairman of the Planning Board, a position vacant in Haryana, is also entitled to use the red beacon.

In a move likely to pinch the bureaucracy the most, the red light benefit has been withdrawn from all officials, including the DGP, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police. The only exception is the Chief Secretary who can continue to use the red beacon atop his official vehicle. However, he, too, has not found place in the “with flasher” category, sources said.

Keeping the politicians out of this “privileged net” finalised yesterday, red lights stand disallowed to all elected representatives, including MPs and MLAs and party office-bearers.

A call on the hefty fine to act as a deterrent was yet to be taken, they said.

In its December 10 order, the Supreme Court had asked the authorities to enforce the directions within a specified timeframe. The sources said the government had three months to finalise its list and a circular of those authorised to use the red light would soon be sent out.

Haryana Transport Commissioner Sumita Misra said, “The court directions would be followed in toto.”

Ambala, January 15
The recent decision taken by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) to increase the cost of power overdraws from the northern gird is most likely to further hike the price of power in Haryana.

Highly placed sources in the CERC said the decision was taken to maintain grid discipline through commercial mechanism for deviation settlements. However, the decision, which will come into effect from February 17, would brew trouble for the government in the election year as it is already facing protests from people opposing the hefty power bills.

Meanwhile, the sources said changes had been made after which the CERC would tighten the frequency band and enhance the charges applicable for power overdraws by power utilities across the country.

The charges for deviation for each 0.01 Hz frequency step would change the power cost by 35.60 paise per unit in frequency range of 50.05 Hz to 50.00 Hz and 20.84 paise per unit in frequency range from 49.70 Hz to 50.00 Hz. At 49.70 Hz the overdraw charges have been increased to Rs 8.2404 per unit, which is Rs 1.9884 per unit at 50.00 Hz and free power at frequency exceeding 50.05 Hz. No overdraw would be permitted from grid when the system frequency falls below 49.7 Hz.

In case of overdraws at system frequency less than 49.7 Hz by any utility, a very strong deterrent has been made as the overdraw charges shall be Rs 16.4808 per unit.

As far as the state is concerned, during the previous years it had been paying unscheduled interchange (UI) charges for over drawing power from the northern gird to the tune of Rs 4841.

The sources added that in case the state has to overdraw power in the upcoming seasons, the increased cost of power would be passed on to the consumers as had been done in previous years, making power cost more.

Chandigarh, January 15
The Haryana Power Purchase Centre (HPPC), a part of the Haryana Power Distribution Corporations (DISCOMS), has said that the state has adequate power for supply to the consumers. It was buying power from different sources on the basis of a long-term power purchase agreement as a result of which it was cheaper to purchase nearly 30 per cent power from private and other players than generate power itself.

Citing an example, IB Shrivastava, Chief Engineer, HPPC, has said that from April to November, 2013, power was bought at the rate of Rs 3.26 per unit from Adani whereas the cost to procure from other soruces ranged from Rs 3.94 to Rs 5.33. The cost of power supplied by private players was sometime even cheaper than the cost of power supplied by theNTPC.

He assured the consumers that Haryana had a sufficient long-term agreement to meet the peak demand for power. He said it was incorrect to suggest that DISCOMS were buying more expensive power while keeping its own units idle.

Chandigarh, January 15
The Haryana Government today issued the transfer and posting orders of two IAS and 28 HCS officers.

Amit Khatri, SDO(Civil), Palwal, has been posted SDO(Civil), Sonepat, in place of Virender Lather, who goes as ADC, Sonepat.

Vijay Kumar Siddappa Baavikatti, SDO(Civil), Ferozepur Jhirka, goes as SDO(Civil), Ellenabad, vice Ashwani Kumar, who has been posted as SDO(Civil),Brara, in place of Aurbind Sharma.

SS Dalal, Controller, Printing and Stationery, Haryana, and Geeta Bharti, Additional Director (Admn), Secondary Education, will swap their places of posting.

Bhupinder Singh, Additional State Transport Controller, has been posted as Additional Transport Commissioner and Secretary, State Information Commission, in place of Jagdeep Dhanda.

Monica Malik, Additional Director(Admn), Development and Panchayat, has been posted as Additional Labour Commissioner and Additional Director, ESI, in place of Parvesh Kumar, who goes as Additional Director(Admn), Urban Local Bodies, to replace KK Kalson, who has been posted as General Manager, Haryana Tourism.

Lalit Kumar, SDO(Civil), Ratia, has been posted as Additional Director(Admn), Development and Panchayats. Yash Pal, GM, Haryana Roadways, Faridabad, has been posted as SDO(Civil), Rewari, vice Subhita Dhaka, who goes as City Magistrate, Hisar, vice Mahender Pal, who has been posted as SDO(Civil), Tohana, to replace Yogesh Kumar Mehta, who has been posted as SDO(civil), Bawal.

Rajiv Mehta, SDO(Civil)-cum-Additional Collector, Guhla, has been posted as SDO(Civil), Shahabad, vice Rajesh Kumar who has been posted as SDO(Civil), Barwala, in place of Jag Niwas, whereas Jag Niwas been posted as SDO(Civil), Palwal.

Mahabir Parsad, Secretary, RTA, Faridabad, has been posted as Secretary, RTA, Mewat at Nuh, and Secretary, RTA, Palwal, in place of Tarun Kumar Pawaria, who has been given the charge of SDO(Civil), Ferozepur Jhirka. Satpal Sharma, Joint Secretary, Health, has been posted as City Magistrate, Sirsa, vice Prem Chand Gangle, who has been posted as SDO(Civil), Safidon, in place of 
Umed Singh Mohan. Mohan has been posted as SDO(Civil), Ratia.

DR Kairon, Secretary, Haryana Housing Board, Panchkula, has been posted as City Magistrate, Karnal. . Ashok Kumar Bansal, SDO(Civil), Thanesar, has been transferred as SDO(Civil), Guhla, in place of Rajiv Mehta.

Naveen Kumar Ahuja, OSD in the office of Divisional Commissioner, Ambala, has been transferred as City Magistrate, Yamunanagar, vice Satbir Singh, who has been posted as Secretary, RTA Faridabad.

Pradeep Kumar-II, City Magistrate, Jhajjar ,and Satish Yadav, SDO(Civil), Bahadurgarh, will swap their places of posting.

Shrikant Walgad

Gearing up for polls

• Final voters lists uploaded on the website www.ceoharyana.nic.in
• SMS, e-mail alerts to be sent to new voters on voter card preparation
• 16,129 polling stations -- 4,485 in urban areas and 11,644 in rural areas
• First-level checking of electronic voting machines being done
• Aadhar card not valid identify proof during elections
• About 8 lakh new voters added during summary revision

Rohtak, January 15
The district health authorities have unearthed a racket of conducting illegal abortions at Sampla township in the district. A woman quack arrested yesterday in this connection has been sent in judicial custody.

Identified as Raj Mehta of Mahajan Mohalla, Sampla, the woman allegedly used to conduct illegal abortions and had a wide network spread across several districts of the state. She mostly aborted more than 12-week-old foetuses, apparently after sex-determination, and employed a crude and outdated method to conduct abortions, using wooden as well as metal tools, which are not in medical practice since the past at least 20 years.

Sources said Raj Mehta had been working as a midwife in the township for about three decades. In 1987, she got a certificate of trained birth attendant from the state Health Department.

She also produced a degree issued by some Varanasi-based institute and another certificate in alternative medicine during the raid, but later admitted that the degree and certificate were not earned but purchased.

Dr Kuldeep Singh, Deputy Civil Surgeon, National Health Mission and Family Welfare, who led the raiding party, today said he had seen the wooden equipment, called ‘laminaria tent’ for the first time in his medical career.

“She first told us that she was forced to conduct abortions for her livelihood owing to the family’s limited sources of income. However, she also maintained that her son had gone abroad to pursue a course in medicine. On being questioned about the dichotomy in her statement, she broke down,” he added.

The huge stock of syringes, injectible medicines, various ayurvedic and allopathic formulations as well as medical record found at the centre indicated the enormity of the illegal medical practice.

A member of the raiding team said the quack used to discard the foetuses as well as medical and surgical waste in an open dustbin, which was also a grave health concern and gross violation of norms.

“She was known as a midwife in the area, but we did not know that illegal abortions were also conducted at her centre. This is indeed shocking as she had been staying amongst us and carrying out such sinful activities clandestinely and with impunity,” said Angrej Singh, a resident of the vicinity of Mahajan Mohalla at Sampla.

On condition of anonymity, another neighbour of the quack said she had a practice of deliveries and abortions and also prescribed and sold drugs like Viagra for reproductive disorders.

Chandigarh, January 15
Gurgaon district has registered the highest average yield of bajra at 22.35 quintal per hectare. Gurgaon would be awarded a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh in Kisan Sammelan by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

An official spokesman said here that bajra was cultivated in about 32,000 hectares during the 2013-14 kharif season.

He said Mahabir of Jatoal village in Farrukh Nagar block had been selected as the best farmer for highest yield per hectare of the mustard crop. Mahabir has set an example by harvesting 38.13 quintal per hectare during the rabi season of 2012-13. Similarly, Surender Kumar of Pahari village in Pataudi block had been selected as the best progressive farmer in Gurgaon for which the state government would give an award of Rs 50,000 to him.

The spokesman said Mankrola village in Gurgaon block had been selected as the best village in the district in the field of agriculture and would get awarded with Rs 10 lakh.

Krishna Yadav of Bajghera village in Gurgaon block, who had been selected for the first prize in food processing in the state, would get an award of Rs 50,000.

Ambala, January 15
With the elections approaching fast, the issue of conversion of several acres of leased out land in the sadar area to freehold properties continues to be a major issue in Ambala.

The 99-year-old lease is coming to an end within the next few years and would affect more than 6,700 families, which have set up their business on the land and are now uncertain as to what would be their fate after the lease period gets over.

While the state government has been silent over the issue due to political reasons, Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumari Selja and a delegation of local Congress leaders took up the matter with Rahul Gandhi seeking prompt redress of the issue.

The land had been leased out to the occupants during the British rule and they continued to run their respective businesses on the same premises even after independence.

Maninder Singh, a local resident who occupies a piece of land in the sadar area, which was leased out to his grandfather, said they were now uncertain as to what would be the fate of the lease holders. They had repeatedly taken up the matter with the higher authorities, but the state government had been delaying a decision on the issue as the sadar area was represented by a BJP legislator, he alleged.

Varinder Singh, another occupant of the leased land, said though there was no legal hassle in converting the leased out land to freehold properties, the government was reluctant to take a decision in this regard.

Pritam Singh, another lease holder, said most of the occupants were even ready to pay the market rate of the land occupied by them in case these were converted into freehold properties.

Gurgaon, January 15
The Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC) has put pressure on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to abandon its move to include the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) in an anti-Congress alliance in Haryana as it will erode the anti-corruption stand.

Toughening its stand on the issue, the HJC is said to be gearing up to walk out of its alliance with the BJP if the latter does not abandon its move on the INLD. A section of the BJP has mooted the idea of roping in the INLD to prevent a split in anti-Congress votes in Haryana and is assiduously working on the issue.

The HJC has adopted a rigid stand in the wake of its president Kuldeep Bishnoi getting feedback from cadres on the issue. The cadres have told him that the people perceive him to be a leader without taint and the party cannot afford to lose its forte.

HJC leaders have cautioned Bishnoi on the issue. Their view is that INLD supremo and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala has been indicted in the teachers’ recruitment scam.

They say the image of the party will suffer irreparable damage, especially on the issue of corruption, if it is seen to be even remotely associated with the INLD.

Tejpal Sharma of the HJC wondered what the disposition of the BJP toward the INLD was. “The HJC will not compromise on the issue of corruption,” he said.

In his recent meetings with BJP president Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari and others, Bishnoi expressed reservations about the INLD. He cautioned that the anti-corruption stand of the BJP would be affected in the general election by its association with the INLD.

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party is understood to have sent feelers to the HJC leadership for a possible alliance. The development is being kept a guarded secret.

Chandigarh, January 15
Dubbing as “governance failure” the inability of the local bodies and municipal authorities to remove encroachments, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has made it clear that initiation of action against the illegal occupiers was their statutory function.

Acting on a petition filed by Naresh Kumar and other petitioners against Haryana and other respondents on the failure of the authorities concerned to remove encroachments in Jind, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Arun Palli asserted: “We fail to appreciate such inaction. It is the local bodies and municipal authorities’ responsibility to ensure that such encroachments do not take place and there is proper governance at the basic level.

Calling upon the authorities to take action, the Bench also asserted that it would monitor the work done and warned the government that further inaction would attract action under the provisions of the Contempt of Court Act. “We, thus, call upon the respondents to take necessary remedial action with police force, if required, and to file a status report before us within six weeks under the signatures of the Principal Secretary, Deputy Commissioner and the Executive Officer of the Municipal Council.

“We also put the officers to caution as also the state government that if even after removing such encroachments, any fresh encroachment takes place that will amount to a violation of the directions contained in this order as it is their responsibility to thereafter also keep a watch on the sites and this would be under the pain of contempt”.

The writ petition was disposed of after the encroachments were stated to be removed. “But, it appears that no endeavour has been made to monitor and keep the fresh encroachments at bay,” the Bench noted.

Kurukshetra, January 15
People in general can be seen complaining about financial limitations dragging them back and leaving nowhere, but there is a saying “where there is a will, there is a way”.

Geeta (centre) with her parents. A Tribune photograph

Gurmej Singh, a poor cobbler from Jhansa, who hardly manages to make both ends meet, is in the limelight these days, as his daughter Geeta is going to be a doctor.

This is not a dream come true sequence, as Singh did not expect his daughter to get educated, and that too in such an expensive and one of the most respected professions. His daughter was bright in studies and always got good marks but just the division will not get her anywhere, he thought. But his daughter cleared the entrance examination and now the time was to arrange a hefty amount to enrol her in the course.

However, the relatives and neighbours were dead against his decision of sending a girl child out of her hometown for higher education and that too in such an expensive profession. But the poor father was not ready to allow poverty destroy his daughter’s dream.

Singh said “Being a poor man, I could never think that my daughter would become a doctor one day. Due to a lack of finances, getting Geeta admitted was a big challenge for us. But she wanted to become a doctor and we are happy that she will now be able to”.

Setting all the social barriers and financial conditions of the family aside, Geeta got admission in MBBS in Agroha Medical College, Hisar, and is studying hard to fulfil her dream.

She said “I used to see teams of doctors pass-by in the doctors’ colony in front of my house and wanted to be like them. My prime objective of becoming a doctor is to provide inexpensive treatment so that no poor loses life because of lack of finances”.

Rakam Singh, Geeta’s grandfather, who managed to get a loan of Rs 8 lakh for her, said “Being an illiterate, it is a big achievement for me to see Geeta become a doctor. I want my other grandchildren to follow her path and become like her. Moreover, people who were against our decision earlier now congratulate us and want their children to be like Geeta.”

Sirsa, January 15
The Haryana Bijli Andolan Sangharsh Samiti has given a call for a Sirsa bandh against inflated power bills on January 18.

Roshan Suchan, secretary of the All-India Students Federation (AISF) and state convener of the samiti, said demonstrations would be organised across the state on January 18 while complete bandhs would be organised in Sirsa and Sonepat.

Suchan said demonstrations would be held at Fatehabad, Hisar, Ambala, Panchkula, Karnal, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Faridabad, Jind, Bhiwani and some other districts.

Ambala, January 15
A middle-aged woman was found dead in a pond at Balana on the Ambala-Hisar road today. The woman had been missing for two days. The deceased has been identified as Champa Rani (40).

The Sadar police station, Ambala, has registered a case against the husband of the deceased and two of his brothers on the complaint of Champa’s brother Suresh Kumar. Suresh alleged that since her sister did not have any child, she was being harassed by her in-laws.

Reports said Champa of Kotkachchua village married Sudesh in 1988 and she was living with her in-laws in Balana village. She was working has a helper in a soap factory while her husband was unemployed.

Some of the passersby noticed that a body was floating in the village pond. The police was informed and the body was removed from the pond. The police took the body to the civil hospital in Ambala City.

Sadar police station SHO Chander Parkash said a case under relevant Sections was registered against the husband of the deceased and two others.