Jind, April 18
Early morning rain today, accompanied by strong winds, has multiplied the worries of farmers, who have been waiting in the grain market for many days to sell their crop. Due to lack of proper storage arrangements for wheat before purchase, the rain has drenched the crop and farmers will have to suffer losses.

Though a majority of farmers had come prepared with their own pallis (sheets made of empty urea bags) to cover their crop, not all had brought their covers with them as they expected early purchase of wheat. But the 30-45-minute rain drenched majority of crop. The rain will further delay the purchase as after rain the moisture content is bound to increase.

“I have harvested only around 40 per cent of my wheat and suspended further harvesting as strong winds have flattened all crop. I was expecting that officials would purchase my crop in a day or two, but now I will have to wait for more days as rain has increased the moisture content,” said Inder, a farmer sitting at the local grain market.

Many alleged that there was deliberate delay in purchasing the crop by officials of the purchase agencies while some senior officials said they were helpless as they could not purchase wheat with more than 12 per cent moisture content.

“Officials are working like our enemies. If they do not want to purchase our crop immediately they should at least make some temporary arrangements to cover it. We just want to protect our crop from rain,” said Narinder, another farmer at the grain market.

A visit to some adjoining villages showed that rain had not only badly affected harvested wheat, but the winds had flattened wheat in many parts. As there was forecast for more rain in a day or two, many farmers have suspended their harvest while others said they would suffer losses as production will go down.

“Last year I got 60 quintals of wheat from each acre, but this year I do not expect more than 40 quintals as untimely rain has served a huge blow to all crops,” said Ishwar, a farmer from Ahirka village.

Jind Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Rattan visited various markets today and directed the officers concerned to accelerate wheat purchase.

Chandigarh, April 18
Over 16.57 lakh metric tonnes (MT) of wheat has so far arrived in various mandis across the state. A spokesman said the government agencies had so far procured 16,57,354 metric tonnes (MT) of wheat whereas 113 MT have been purchased by traders. 

The Food and Supplies Department had purchased the highest 5.16 lakh MT of wheat, HAFED 5.14 lakh MT, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation 1.26 lakh MT, Haryana Warehousing Corporation 1.90 lakh MT, CONFED 36,244 MT and the Food Corporation of India 2.72 lakh MT during the current procurement season so far.

He said Karnal district was leading in wheat arrivals where 2.8 lakh MT of wheat has arrived, followed by Kaithal with 2.34 lakh MT, 1.64 lakh MT in Kurukshetra, 1.56 lakh MT in Sonepat, 1.33 lakh MT in Palwal, 66,360 MT in Faridabad, 1.12 lakh MT in Panipat, 59,571 MT in Ambala, 31,198 MT in Gurgaon, 42,453 MT in Jhajjar, 44,002 MT in Rohtak, 18,887 MT in Yamunanagar, 1.54 lakh MT in Jind, 17,882 MT in Bhiwani, 7,247 MT in Narnaul, 30,164 MT in Sirsa, 41,882 MT in Fatehabad, 18,402 MT in Hisar, 21,781 MT in Mewat and 4,223 MT in Panchkula.

Sirsa/Fatehabad, April 18
The district authorities in Sirsa and Fatehabad today issued prohibitory orders banning the burning of wheat stubble in agriculture fields. Fatehabad Deputy Commissioner DK Bahera said the burning of crop residue after harvesting would remain completely banned in the district.

He said the burning of crop residue in fields or brick-kilns and cardboard factories would lead to a shortage of fodder if the monsoon failed.

The burning of wheat stubble affected health too.

Bahera said violation of the orders would invite criminal action under Section 188, Indian Penal Code.

Anshaj Singh, Deputy Commissioner, Sirsa, has also banned the burning of wheat straw in agriculture fields. 

Karnal, April 18
The district administration has banned the wheat arrival from Uttar Pradesh (UP), where the minimum support price (MSP) for the crop is less than in Haryana. Officers of the various departments have been deputed along the border to check the wheat arrival to the state.

Deputy Commissioner Balraj Singh said, “The wheat arrival from neighbouring states has been banned and farmers of other states are not allowed to bring their crop in markets of Karnal.”

Though every year, farmers from UP bring their produce to mandis of the state for sale, old stocks and shortage of storage space are now worrying procurement agencies as godowns have not been fully vacated to accommodate fresh arrivals, so the administration has banned the wheat arrival from UP.

Ambala, April 18
With a thrust on purchasing power from private players, Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) has been forced to shut down nine out of its 12 thermal units.

As of today, power generation from the sources within the state has been reduced to about 900 MW even as the state has an installed capacity of 5,300.50 MW a day. Officials in the HPGCL maintained that these units had been shut down as power demand had decreased.

While these arrangements would ensure lesser power cuts, it would also make the consumers pay more, as shutting down the thermal units would add to the power cost. The prolonged shutdown would dent HPGCL finances, as the utility will be paying Rs 1 per unit for keeping the units shut other then buying the power from private players.

As of today, seven out of the eight thermal units at the Panipat Thermal Power Plant and both units at the Khedar Thermal Power Plant are under shutdown. Two units at the Yamunanagar thermal power plant are generating about 250 MW of power each.

The four units of the stage-1 at the Panipat Thermal Power Plant (4X110 MW) are under complete shutdown since September 2013. The unit no. 5 and 6 are non-operational since November 2013 and January, respectively. The unit no. 7 is under annual maintenance since March 11. This has also brought down the plant load factor of the Panipat Thermal Power Plant to 45 per cent as compared to 74.97 per cent in 2012-13.

At Khedar, unit no. 1 of 600 MW capacity is down due to reduced demand, while unit no. 2 of the same capacity is non-operational since October 2013 due to snag in its turbine.

Meanwhile, Haryana is buying 1,424 MW from Adani-Mundra (Gujarat), 90 per cent of power from the 1,320 MW China Light power station at Jhajjar and an additional 750 MW from the Aravali Jhajjar station of the NTPC.

Jhajjar, April 18
The Toll Hatao Sangharsh Samiti is not in a mood to withdraw their agitation against the hefty toll across the state despite getting an assurance from Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda to form a policy for reducing the toll.

Members of the samiti today continued to conduct its public-contact programmes to garner support of the people against the high toll. They alleged that the assurance given by the CM was “a part of his political move” to pacify the infuriated people for his interest. They said they would not withdraw their agitation, until their demands were not met.

The samiti has called a state-level meeting of various non-political organisations, youth outfits, khap panchayats and social activists on May 4 to decide further course of action.

“We are not withdrawing our campaign until a firm action will be taken to resolve the issue. The common man has been facing problems as he has to shell out more while travelling in the state,” said Virender Hooda, chief of the samiti, while interacting with mediapersons during a public-contact programme in Dighal village here today.

“Why didn’t the CM form a policy to control the toll when he knew that the toll was high and needed to be reduced?,” he questioned.

“Residents of the CM’s home town also called on him many times over the issue, but he did not pay any heed towards curtailing the toll. But, now when it seems that his government is losing confidence among the common man due to various reasons, he has taken the issue of toll to regain the people’s faith. Now, the people have understood his political drama,” said Hooda.

He alleged that the recent hike in the toll across the state was made on behest of the state government so that later it could put the hike on hold to get political mileage.

“Even in the CM’s native village Sanghi, no one is ready to believe his assurance as villagers alleged that the CM had misguided them by making false promises in the past as well,” he said.

Chandigarh, April 18
Further relaxing the model code of conduct, the Election Commission (EC) has allowed state government functionaries to use more official vehicles for administrative work.

In an order issued by the Chief Secretary, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker, ministers and ministers of state will now be able to use the second official vehicle for their official duties even outside the state headquarters.

Similarly, the non-official chairman/chairpersons of boards and corporations have also been allowed to use state government vehicles for official works, However, all state government functionaries have been barred from entering any parliamentary constituencies where elections are yet to take place or where a repoll is pending, official sources told The Tribune here today.

The restrictions on use of officials vehicles were imposed in March in view of the April 10 Lok Sabha elections in Haryana.

Karnal, April 18
Deputy Commissioner Balraj Singh today visited the grain market to review the arrangements for wheat procurement. He also visited Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College to review the progress of construction work.

Expressing dissatisfaction over the lifting of wheat in the grain market, the DC directed the officials concerned to take steps in this connection.

The Deputy Commissioner told the market committee officials that the crop should be purchased without causing any harassment to farmers.

He talked to farmers in the grain market and assured them of smooth procurement.

The Deputy Commissioner said over 2.8 lakh metric tonnes of wheat had been procured by various agencies from grain markets of the district till now.

Karnal, April 18
Irked over fee hike by many private schools, hundreds of parents today took out a protest march here. They demanded immediate rollback of the fee hike. They also demanded implementation of the April 15 orders of the district Education Department.

The parents started their protest march from the Committee Chowk and passing through Kunjpura road and Hospital Chowk, the march was culminated at the Committee Chowk. The protesters also decided to hold a meeting at the chowk tomorrow.

The protest was led by Dinesh Narula, president, Abhibhvak Ekta Sangh. He said, "Schools have increased fee in all categories, which is like extorting money from parents. This is the violation of the orders of the district Education Department.” 

Yamunanagar, April 18
Convicts in the former MLA Relu Ram Punia’s murder case---- Sonia and her husband Sanjeev--- were shifted to the district jail, Yamunanagar, from the Central jail, Ambala, yesterday amid high security.

Sources said the couple had written a letter to the Director-General (DG) (jail) requesting him to shift them to the Yamunanagar jail as Sonia’s in-laws live in Saharanpur (UP). Recently, their request was accepted by the DG.

On August 23, 2001, on her 19th birthday, Sonia and her husband Sanjiv had killed her father MLA Relu Ram Punia, her mother Krishna, sister Priyanka, stepbrother Sunil, his wife Shakuntala and their three children---Lokesh (4), Shivani (2) and Preeti (45-day-old) at their farm house in Prabhuvala village in Hisar.

The crime was committed over a property dispute. On February 15, 2007, the Supreme Court had upheld the verdict of the Sessions Judge and awarded death penalty to Sonia and Sanjeev.

The then President also rejected their mercy petition. However, their death sentence was converted into life imprisonment by the Supreme Court a few months ago.

New Delhi, April 18
Members of the Dalit community along with four alleged gang rape victims from Bhagana village in Hisar have been sitting on a dharna for two days in Delhi. They demanded death penalty for the accused and compensation of Rs 15 lakh for each victim and probe into the case from a central agency.

“A compensation of Rs 15 lakh should be given to each victim. Rapists should be hanged. All Dalit families should be given accommodation in a city and employment besides education for our children,” said Virender Singh Bhagoria, a resident of Bhagana village.

He said on March 23, four Dalit girls were kidnapped from outside their houses by Jats. Three girls were forced to smell an intoxicant. They were also gang-raped. The fourth girl in her statement said more than five youths gang-raped her,” said Virender.

He said the police had arrested five persons, but there were more persons involved in the crime. He said the Jat community had prohibited them from using the local well, visiting the temple and the school.

He said about 137 Dalit families had left the village and were staying outside the local District Magistrate’s office, where they were protesting the boycott and demanding action against it.

Gurgaon, April 18
The police have registered a case against organisers of a fashion show for allegedly duping several designers of nearly Rs 10 lakh by cancelling the programme at the last moment.

The case was lodged against Rohan Verma and others at the Civil Lines police station. The police said the complainant designers hailed from Delhi, Mumbai and Chandigarh. The organisers of the Fashion Week Gurgaon-2014 had taken Rs 50,000 to Rs 2 lakh from them to set up stalls.

The show was scheduled from April 17 to 20 and several reputed brands were associated with the event as sponsors.

“They made false claims about association with people like Ritu Kumar and Daler Mehndi and even lied about buyers and media partners. We were promised professional models but there were just a few college girls. When we reached the venue, the main organising team was missing,” said one of the 17 complainants.

The police said the address of the key accused, a resident of the city, could not be ascertained.