Rewari, April 19
Facing criticism from various quarters for the deteriorating condition of roads in Rewari, state Power Minister and local legislator Capt Ajay Singh Yadav has told Deputy Commissioner (DC) CJ Rajni Kaanthan to lodge a first information report (FIR) against the contractor who allegedly used substandard material in constructing a road in the Jeewali Market in the heart of the town.

Taking a serious view of the complaint lodged by traders in the market in this regard, Capt Yadav has directed the DC to get probed the role of municipal council (MC) officials associated with this road project so that stern action can be taken against them.

“I have told the Rewari DC not to take this serious issue lightly and get an FIR lodged against the contractor and MC officials concerned so that nobody uses poor-quality material in constructing roads and streets in the future,” Capt Yadav told The Tribune here today.

He said, “MC officials have already sent samples of the material used in constructing the road to laboratories for testing quality, but we will not wait for the results. We will blacklist the contractor because the condition of the road is sufficient to prove that substandard material has been used in laying it.”

Refuting the charge levelled by traders that the contractor had got the tender for laying the road due to his political connections, Capt Yadav said there was no political interference in the matter. He said the tender was issued as per terms and conditions, but the contractor had violated norms by using poor-quality material in laying the road. He asserted that the contractor would have to get the road relaid.

The road was laid around a month ago and it was damaged on the edges within a week. Traders at the Jeewali Market had submitted a memorandum to the DC, seeking an investigation into the construction material used for laying the road and stern action against the contractor and MC officials concerned.

The DC had sent Amna Tasmeen, executive officer of the MC, to the market for collecting samples in the presence of traders, who informed her that the road had been damaged within a week of it being laid. Traders had said they were facing a tough time due to the damaged and dust-filled road. They had demanded strict action against the contractor and MC officials concerned so that substandard material was not used in the future.

Sirsa, April 19
Government schoolteachers are up in arms against the state government’s latest move of ‘rationalisation of teachers’ and have threatened to launch an agitation if the government move ahead with its plans.

Teachers held a demonstration here today under the aegis of Haryana Rajkiye Adhyapak Sangh and raised slogans against the government.

Gurdeep Singh Saini, chairman of the media cell of the Haryana Rajkiye Adhyapak Sangh, said, “The government had shelved this process earlier following a protest by teachers. However, after the parliamentary elections, it has again started the process.”

Saini alleged that if the government was allowed to go ahead with its plan, many teachers would be declared surplus, resulting in displacement of regular teachers and loss of jobs for the guest teachers.

The agitating teachers alleged that the state government wanted to implement the teacher-student ratio of 1:50 against 1:35 as mentioned in the Right to Education Act.

Saini said for maintaining teacher-student ratios, the Education Department had sought a list of teachers and students till April 23, 2014.

He alleged that the rationalisation norms also provide that the services of a science teacher would taken for teaching mathematics too, that of a Sanskrit teacher for teaching Hindi and an English teacher would teach social studies as well.

In Fatehabad, a deputation of the Haryana Vidyalaya Adhyapak Sangh, led by district president Raghunath Mehta, submitted a charter of their demands to the Block Education Officer.

Sirsa, April 19
Procurement activities in the Kalanwali grain market of the district have come to a standstill, as traders are up in arms against the Haryana State Cooperative Supplies and Marketing Federation (HAFED) for deducting a huge amount of money from their payments for the last year’s purchase of wheat.

Last evening, the traders held hostage a senior administrative officer who had gone there to resolve the dispute and today too, the traders did not allow two officials to come out of their office.

“HAFED deducted over Rs 25 lakh from our payments from purchase of wheat made from the grain market last year, citing a shortage of nearly 2,200 quintals of wheat. Later, replying to an application moved under the RTI, HAFED itself admitted that the agency has excessive stocks of 400 quintals in their godowns at Kalanwali. Only this month, an official was caught when he was trying to shift wheat bags out of the godowns with ulterior motives,” alleged Pradeep Jain, president of the Arhtiya Association, Kalanwali.

He alleged that the traders made the senior administrative officer, who came to mediate, hostage because he said derogatory words about the Sikh community. Later, he apologised publicly in the presence of Sant Gurmeet Singh Tilokewala, a member of the Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee.

He said HAFED was to be blamed for the shortages, as the agency did not lift the wheat for long while it was supposed to do it within 24 hours of the purchase.

Today, the traders closed their shutters in the morning and sat in front of the office of Cooperative Society that purchases wheat on behalf of HAFED.

The traders did not allow two officials to come out of their office.

Suresh Jawa, District Manager, HAFED, however, said the traders had backed out of the agreement they reached with the agency last night in the presence of an administrative officer from Sirsa.

He said on the traders’ demand, he with the permission of his MD had allow payments of nearly 400 quintals of excessive wheat lying in the HAFED warehouse, but the traders wanted refund of the deduction of the 2,200 quintals.

“Later, our officials agreed to this too by contributing from their salaries, but now the traders have placed another demand of giving similar payments on purchases made at other centres coming under Kalanwali,” Jawa said.

He said HAFED had told the authorities that they could allot the agency some other grain market instead of Kalanwali, as the traders were not willing to cooperate.

Sonepat, April 19
Prevailing inclement weather conditions have forced farmers to opt for combine harvesting of their wheat crop to bring it to the grain markets at the earliest. Earlier, most of the farmers used to give preference to manual harvesting and thrashing to get dry fodder.

This has not only increased the combine harvesting rates, but also minimised the work of agriculture labourers in villages. It is also feared that combine harvesting would lead to shortage of dry fodder.

Farmer Anand of Naina Tatarpur village says the manual harvesting and thrashing take four to five days if the weather conditions are good and it used to cost around Rs 7,000 per acre.

“However, in this process, the farmer gets around 16 quintals of dry fodder which is valued about Rs 6,000,” he added.

“The per acre charges for combine harvesting and reaping of wheat stubbles are estimated to Rs 4,600, but in this exercise, there is loss of 50 per cent of the dry fodder when compared to manual harvesting,” he said.

Sunil Chikara of Juan village said the combine harvesting and reaping rates were ranging between Rs 3,500 to 4,000 per acre last year “When the harvesting season started this year, this harvesting process was costing up to Rs 4,000 per acre,” he said and added that it had increased up to Rs 4,600 per acre in recent days.

In manual harvesting, the agriculture labourers used to harvest wheat crop for two to three quintals of wheat and equal weight of dry fodder per acre. The inclement weather and combine harvesting have deprived the agriculture labourers of this income.

Hisar, April 19
Alleging the claims of the state government to generate surplus power have been proved wrong, INLD youth leader Dushyant Chautala said the state was facing an acute power crisis.

Addressing a workers’ meeting here today, Dushyant, party nominee from the Hisar Lok Sabha seat, said most of the power plants were lying defunct for the last six months, causing power shortage in the state.

“The state government has been misleading the people on the power generation for the last nine years. The power is being purchased from private companies. Government officials are earning commission on the purchase deal while the consumers are being forced to shell out exorbitant rates,” he alleged.

“Seven out of the eight power generation units are out of order at the Panipat thermal plant. Unit Number 1 and 2 have been shut since June 2013. Both units of the Khedar power plant in Hisar are non-functional since November 2013 and February this year. Similarly, two units of the Yamunanagar thermal plant are non-functional for the last many months,” alleged Dushyant .

He alleged that the government was purchasing power from the Adani Group at a rate of Rs 3.26 per unit while the consumers are being charged Rs 6 to 7 per unit. 

Kurukshetra, April 19
With weather conditions turning favourable, wheat arrivals are likely to gain momentum in the next couple of days. But due to slow lifting, there is not much space left to offload fresh stocks in the New Grain Market here.

Over 2.52 lakh quintals of wheat are lying in the grain market due to slow lifting by the government procurement agencies.

Subey Singh Dhull, a commission agent, said, “The purchased wheat is lying in the open and causing space shortage for farmers in the grain market. Some farmers have to wait for hours to sell their crop.”

Sukhbir Singh, a farmer of Dheerpur village, who arrived with his produce at the Thanesar mandi, said: “I have been waiting for three hours to offload my produce but the commission agent does not have much space to keep it.” More than 4,63,476 quintals of wheat arrived in the mandi but due to slow lifting, just 2,10,690 quintals could be lifted so far.

Of the total arrivals, 1,83,883 quintals have been procured by the Food and Supply Department, 95,835 by Hafed and 1,42,918 by the Haryana Agro.

SDM Rajesh Kumar said higher moisture content was delaying the lifting. “Dried stocks have been lifted but the stocks with higher moisture level cannot be packed in bags as the grain will get damaged. All purchasing agencies and contractors have been asked to speed up the lifting process,” he added.

Agricultural experts expect 10-15 per cent loss in the current season due to untimely rain and strong winds. “On an average, a farmer can expect 20-22 quintals of wheat per acre. But this time, the average yield is around 18 quintals,” said an expert.

Commission agents alleged that truck drivers were demanding commission in lieu of lifting the stock. They said drivers demanded Rs 2 to 3 per sack for loading. “It is the duty of the contractor to make arrangements for proper lifting but we have to shell out from our pockets for lifting which is ethically wrong, he said. Zila Parishad chairman Praveen Choudhery said: “We have received complaints from commission agents and officials have been directed to take proper action in this matter.”

Jind, April 19
Facing severe criticism for inadequate wheat purchase arrangements, finally the administration has assigned special duties to all senior officers to ensure smooth procurement of the crop.

Jind Deputy Commissioner Rajiv Rattan held a meeting with senior officers and assigned various grain markets to them to accelerate wheat purchase.

As per the orders, Julana, Shamlo Kalan, Fatehgarh and Kharkramji grain markets have been assigned to ADC Jaibir Singh Arya, Rajpura Bhain, Aleva, and Jind areas have been assigned to Jind SDM Amrita Siwach, Safidon SDM Prem Chand has got Muana, Didwada, Haat, Siwanamall, Achrakala, Pillukhera and Safidon grain markets, Narwana SDM Bhal Singh Bishnoi has been directed to look after wheat purchase in Dhamtan, Ghanauri, Kharl, Garhi, Barta, Belrakhan, Danaunda Kalan, Fairan Kalan, Mangalpur and Narwanal grain markets etc.

“All officers would daily submit their reports about wheat purchase in their respective grain markets,” said the Deputy Commissioner.

A senior officer said it all happened after Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday said that the DC concerned would be held responsible if farmers and commission agents face any problem.

After receiving complaints from various parts of the state, the Chief Minister had warned all DCs of strict action as a majority of them were not taking wheat purchase seriously.

“The Chief Minister can asks the DCs to work, but can the DCs push their juniors to work. As yet, we have not seen any change in the working of officers here,” said Karanveer, a farmer in the Jind grain market.

Kosli (Rewari), April 19
Facing allegations of working under political pressure in Mahavir murder case, the Rewari police are in a spot due to their failure in arresting the accused even after a month-and-a-half.

The issue has not been resolved even though residents of Kosli had boycotted the General Election to mount pressure on the authorities to ensure the arrest of the accused.

Despite the efforts of villagers to ensure a speedy probe, the police are yet to conclude their investigation, causing resentment among residents, who have decided to move the High Court for justice.

The villagers alleged that the police were deliberately not arresting the accused due to political pressure by some local leaders as they were seeing their political interest.

They opined that over a month was sufficient to investigate a crime committed in public view in broad daylight, but the police were deliberately not taking action against the accused, which pointed to foul play.

The investigation was being carried out at snail's pace due to political pressure, but they would not stay calm till the accused were arrested, the villagers said.

Rewari SP Pankaj Nain said the accused were not being arrested as the probe was still on and evidence was being gathered. He made it clear there was no political pressure on the police.

Asked if the the accused would be arrested after the completion of the investigation, the SP could not give a satisfactory reply. He stated that the case was being probed. Asked why the investigation was not being sped up when all Kosli residents were demanding it, he could not provide an answer.

Mahavir (62) was killed and 12 others injured when people of Bhakli village allegedly attacked Kosli villagers, who were taking out a march in protest against mentioning Bhakli village on the inauguration stone of a railway overbridge and a kisan rest house on March 5.

Sonepat, April 19
Additional Sessions Judge Manisha Batra has sentenced Ravinder, a resident of Badarka village in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, to life imprisonment for raping a three-year-old girl in his rented room here in Bhagat Pura colony on November 13 last year.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on him and in case of default, the convict would serve additional imprisonment of three years.

In a complaint to the police, the girl’s mother stated that she along with her husband and two daughters aged 7 and 3 years, were living in a rented house in Bhagat Pura colony. On November 13, she along with her husband left for work, leaving behind her daughters in the house.

She said when she returned home around noon, she found her younger daughter missing. Her elder daughter informed her that Ravinder had taken her with him in his room. When she reached Ravinder’s room, he was not present there and she found her daughter bleeding and lying on the roof of the room.

The girl was immediately taken to the civil hospital where doctors confirmed rape. A case was registered against the accused and he was arrested.

Yamunanagar, April 19
The police have arrested a person for attempting to rape his daughter-in-law in the Camp area of Yamunanagar. He was produced in a court which remanded him to 14 days judicial custody.

In her complaint, the victim said she was alone at her home on the night of April 15. She alleged that her father-in-law Mohan Lal entered her room on some pretext and made an attempt to rape her. — TNS