Rohtak, June 9
After power and water, Haryana is face to face with a queer shortage—IAS officers who can be posted as Deputy Commissioners. Though enough officers of that level are available, but not many meet the criterion set by the government for the key posts of Deputy Commissioner, it is learnt.

The intake of IAS officers over the past few years has been reduced to a trickle. On an average, only two IAS recruits are allocated to Haryana annually. Besides, the panel that promotes HCS officers to the IAS cadre has not met for a long time. So no new names have been added to the gradation list at the level of the Deputy Secretary for the past few years, sources said.

Thus the number of officers at this level has been curtailed drastically. On the other hand, the IAS officers have graduated to the super time scale of Commissioner, further limiting the government’s choice at the level of Deputy secretary who are posted as DCs.

The sources said many officers at this level had been ruled out for posts of DC because of their record – both official and unofficial. While the former category includes performance and integrity, the latter largely means political suitability.

The sources said while the government was willing to overlook the unofficial part if an officer met the Hooda regime’s strict professional criteria, the relaxation still did not add up to enough numbers.

The top bureaucrats are toying with the unusual idea of posting Commissioner-rank officers as Deputy Commissioners. However, it has failed to find a solution to the problems this move will throw up.

For instance, will the Commissioners accept the designation of Deputy Commissioner? Even if they did, and reports say many are keen, what would happen if a Commissioner-rank officer was posted out to a district which falls in a revenue division headed by a junior officer of the same rank?

The sources said if the posts of DC were to be upgraded to that of Commissioner rank, their designation would be Commissioner. In that scenario what will be the designation of Commissioners of a revenue division? The only plausible solution could be posting Financial Commissioners as Commissioners of divisions. For that, the posts of Divisional Commissioner would have to be upgraded.

The move would have another unpleasant fallout. It would ensure that some HCS officers will never make it to the post of Deputy Commissioner as they would be close to superannuation by the time they become Commissioners.

This would have a demoralising effect on the HCS cadre that accounts for nearly half of the state’s bureaucracy.

It was unlikely that the suggestion for posting Commissioners as DCs would be accepted.

Sonepat, June 9
Senior Congress leader and national president of the All-India Kisan and Khet Mazdoor Congress, Mr Shamsher Singh Surjewala today charged senior officers of the Agriculture Department of the Central Government of misleading Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar by giving wrong figures of the suicides being committed by farmers in Haryana and Punjab.

“I will demand action against such officers,” he said. Talking to mediapersons here, he said he had written a letter to the Union Agriculture Minister demanding a package for the farmers of the northern states on the pattern of the package announced by him for Karnataka, Kerla, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra a few months back.

But Mr Sharad Pawar replied that on the basis of the figures provided by the officers of the department the situation in the northern states, particularly Punjab and Haryana, was not so bad, he said.

He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi had visited villages in Narwana tehsil where the farmers had committed suicides due to loan burdens. — OC

Rohtak, June 9
The New Delhi-Rohtak section of National Highway 10 running between Fazilka and Delhi is in for widening. Most of this section will now have six lanes.

According to Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has invited international bids for this project estimated to cost Rs 504 crore. The work is likely to start by the year-end.

He said under the new project, the earlier plans to build an elevated section over Bahadurgarh had been abandoned. Now the highway would bypass Bahadurgarh. The bypass would start near Tikri Border in Delhi and then meet the existing main highway beyond Bahadurgarh, thus leaving the road passing through Bahadurgarh undisturbed.

Another bypass would be built starting from Kharawar near here and culminating at Bahu Akbarpur village beyond Rohtak. Thus the existing bypass would be left untouched to ease traffic inside this town.

Mr Hooda said earlier this section was to be four-laned. But under the revised project, most of this section would have six lanes. The project would be completed under the National Highway Development Programme’s category 3A.

Mr Hooda, who made strenuous efforts to get the project approved, said the Rohtak-Hisar section of the highway would be taken up for similar widening. This section was currently under category 3B. Work on that section would begin a few months after the first section construction got underway. Similar bids would be invited by the NHAI for this section.

The Rohtak-Delhi section of the highway is one of the busiest parts of this important highway. Incidentally, Mr Hooda’s father, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had first initiated efforts for this project several years ago when he was a member of the Lok Sabha from Rohtak.

Gurgaon, June 9
The Rs 700-crore project of expanding the NH-8 (Delhi-Jaipur passing through Gurgaon) has developed hiccups with the Haryana Government differing with the Centre on the rate of land to be allotted by it for toll plaza to be set up at the Delhi-Gurgaon border.

The NHAI and M/s Jaypee-DSC Ventures Ltd, assigned the construction, today expressed their helplessness before the Union Minister of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways, Mr T.R. Baalu, who had come here to inspect the progress of the construction and inaugurate a flyover across the Gurgaon-Sohana road.

The officials said as per the contractual obligation, 20 acres belonging to HUDA and the HSIDC had to be given to the NHAI by the Haryana Government for setting up the toll plaza.

The transfer of land has not taken place as the government is asking for the market rate. This is not possible as there is a prescribed rate for the purchase of land by one government from another. The NHAI is part of the Union Government.

A senior officer of the NHAI said the Cabinet Secretary at the Centre had constituted a committee of Secretaries of various ministries on the issue and the decision was that the land should be purchased at the prescribed rate of Rs 22 lakh per acre.

The officer said although work on the toll plaza had been started, the issue remained and would have to be redressed.

The state government has, however, agreed to share 50 per cent of the construction cost for a flyover on the highway in Gurgaon, removing another obstacle in the completion of the project.

The minister directed the governments of Haryana and the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the NHAI to form a study group to plan road networks connecting Gurgaon and Delhi.

The total length of the project is 27.7 km. Out of this, 22.33 km would be widened to eight lanes and the balance would be widened to six lanes. As per the plan, the project was to be completed by July 2005 at a cost of Rs 555 crore. Now there is cost overrun of Rs 155 crore. The NHAI authorities said the cost overrun was on account of value addition.

Chandigarh, June 9
The Indian National Lok Dal today announced a statewide agitation on the Reliance issue even as infighting in the Haryana Congress continues with party leaders calling each other names, instead of taking on the Opposition.

The president of the Haryana unit of the INLD, Mr Ashok Arora, announced here that the party would hold demonstrations at the district headquarters on June 12 to mark the first phase of the agitation, aimed at forcing the Hooda government to cancel the deal which gave land worth Rs 8,150 crore to Reliance Industries for setting up a special economic zone only for Rs 350 crore. The party would also press its demand for a rollback in petroleum prices.

Mr Arora said the secretary-general of the INLD, Mr Ajay Singh Chautala, had already launched a public awareness campaign in the state from June 8 on these issues.

The INLD leader said the party would send a memorandum to the President of India, through the Deputy Commissioners, demanding the cancellation of the land deal with Reliance and for ordering a high-level probe into the matter.

The fresh bout of infighting in the Congress, which started with the party MP from Bhiwani, Mr Kuldip Bishnoi, firing the first salvo on June 6, when he accused the Hooda government of an over Rs 5,000 crore scam in giving land to Reliance, continues unabated. Mr Bishnoi is the younger son of the Haryana Congress president, Mr Bhajan Lal.

Members of the Hooda faction, led by the Irrigation Minister, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, reacted immediately and criticised Mr Bishnoi, accusing him of indulging in anti-party activities. Captain Yadav also alleged that Mr Bishnoi was not performing his duties as an MP and was not attending the Lok Sabha sessions regularly.

Captain Yadav today alleged that Mr Bishnoi was levelling baseless charges against the Hooda government because he had a deeper political game to play.

Captain Yadav said already a number of leaders owing allegiance to Mr Bishnoi's father had quit the Congress to join the BJP. This, he said, had been done to prepare for the day when "certain persons", including Mr Bishnoi, would stab the Congress in the back. He demanded strong disciplinary action against Mr Bishnoi before it was too late.

Even Mr Bishnoi's cousin, Mr Dura Ram, who is the MLA from Fatehabad, has advised the MP not to criticise the Hooda government in public and, thereby, play into the hands of the INLD.

Ambala, June 9
The All-India Equality Forum, Ambala unit, organised “arakshan mukti deep yagya” at Netaji Subhash Park here.

Number of representatives from different organisations participated in the programme. State convener Shyam Lal Sharma said reservation should not be on the basis of caste. He said reservation should be given only to the poor people. He said there should be no reservation policy for the rich people from the reserved communities.

District president Naveen Gulati said reservation was adversely affecting the growth of the nation. He observed that the proposal for extending reservation in the private sector would not only affect production, it would also impact the morle of workers. He said political parties were using it as vote bank politics.

Dr Prabhakar Sharma of the IMA said anti-quota movement was initiated by medical students and doctors.

He said the strike was called off following the Supreme Court direction. Students from other educational institutions had too extended support to the anti-quota movement.