Haryana crosses 38-lakh wheat purchase mark
CHANDIGARH, May 13 — Haryana has surpassed the 38-lakh-tonne mark by procuring 38.08 lakh tonnes of wheat till yesterday of the total arrival of 38.33 lakh tonnes as against 27.43 lakh tonnes during the same period last year.

I-card for disabled in Haryana
CHANDIGARH, May 13 — The Haryana Government has decided to issue identity cards to all eligible disabled persons identified in the state.

21,000 students apply for BEd course
ROHTAK, May 13 — The BEd course of Maharshi Dayanand University is gaining popularity among students, especially girls in the region. It has also emerged as the chief source of income for the university.

GJU to absorb staff on deputation
HISAR, May 13 — All employees who were shifted from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, to Guru Jambheshwar University here in 1996 when the university was established, will now be permanently absorbed by the university.

Rs 12 crore power plan under way
PANIPAT, May 13 — A Rs 12 crore comprehensive plan to strengthen the transmission and distribution systems in Panipat is being executed by the Haryana power Transmission Corporation with the help of the World Bank.

Brickkiln workers' demands met
YAMUNANAGAR, May 13 — A Rs 2 crore package has been awarded to brickkiln workers in the district following an amicable settlement between brickkiln owners and workers.

Gang of cheats busted
KURUKSHETRA, May 13 — An inter-state gang of cheats has been busted by the district police.

Haryana move to help small tax payers
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 13 — The Haryana Cabinet which met here today under the chairmanship of Mr Bansi Lal approved a self-assessment scheme of the Prohibition, Excise and Taxation department which would provide relief to the small tax payers of the state.

To help simplification and rationalisation of assessment procedures under the sales tax laws, the state government has decided, in principle, to introduce a self-assessment scheme which will cover all registered dealers having an annual gross turnover of not exceeding Rs 25 lakh under Haryana Government Sales Tax Act and the Central Sales Tax Act taken together.

The scheme will cover nearly 60,000 registered dealers in the state whose annual gross turnover does not exceed Rs 25 lakh. The returns filed by such dealers will be accepted without requiring their presence or calling for the production of their account books or any evidence in support of such return. About two lakh pending assessment cases will be disposed of with the implementation of the scheme.

The dealers covered under the scheme will not be required to submit any declaration or certificate for deduction or concessional rate of tax. They will only be required to furnish a list of purchases and sales made during the relevant year. As a safeguard against the misuse of the scheme, 5 per cent of the cases of all the dealers covered under the scheme in a year will be taken up in scrutiny at random which will be assessed in the normal course.

The scheme is based on the trust reposed by the government in the tax payers. This will also prevent any chances of avoidable inconvenience or harassment of the small tax payers.

The Cabinet decided to remit the abiana in case of farmers whose crop had been damaged to an extent of 50 per cent or more, with field as unit, due to natural calamities like floods and excessive rain, etc in the state in 1996-97 and 1998-99.

It also decided to revise the pay scales of teachers working in Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar, with effect from January 1,1996, largely as per the recommendations of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research. This decision will benefit 1,422 teachers.

As per quick estimates, the total liability from January 1,1996, to March 31, 2000, will be Rs 5116.97 lakh. Thereafter, the annual additional burden is estimated at Rs 1,410 lakh.

The Cabinet decided to change the name of the Social Defence and Security Department into Directorate of Social Justice and Empowerment, Haryana.

All the service rules and standing orders and orders made on the files regarding service rules in the Social Defence and Security Department will remain the same. The department is implementing a number of schemes for the welfare and rehabilitation of orphan and destitute children, widows and destitute women, aged and infirm, physically handicapped, delinquent juveniles and leprosy patients and their dependants. The old widows and handicapped persons are given pension at the rate of Rs 100 a month. Also, grant-in-aid is provided to the non-governmental organisations to make socially and economically backward women a earner hand. The non-governmental organisations engaged in the field of child and handicapped welfare are also provided grant-in-aid.

The Cabinet also decided to stand guarantee of the state government for a loan of Rs 277.97 lakh to be obtained by Haryana Housing Board from the Housing and Urban Development (HUDCO) to construct 410 LIG houses at Sector 55 of Faridabad.

Uma Bharati's dismissal sought
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 13 — Ms Kartar Devi, acting Leader, Haryana Congress Legislature Party, and Dr Ram Parkash, general secretary, Haryana PCC, have demanded immediate dismissal and arrest of the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Ms Uma Bharati, for threatening self-immolation if after the next Lok Sabha elections, the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, is invited by the President, Mr K.R. Narayanan, to take oath as next Prime Minister.

In a joint statement the Haryana Congress leaders today said the vicious propaganda against Mrs Gandhi being carried out by the BJP and other parties as also the threat of Ms Uma Bharati for self-immolation, were part of the "canard being spread" by these elements to mislead the people of the country and divert the people's attention from the total failure and mis-governance of the BJP-led coalition at the Centre.

The Congress leaders said the propaganda against the Congress leadership spoke of the frustration writ large on the mind of the ruling alliance suggestive of its sure defeat at the hustings due to its all-round failure in providing stability to the country.

The Haryana leaders urged the President to immediately dismiss Ms Uma Bharati from the Union Government for violating the Constitution and the Fundamental Rights enshrined therein for the Indian citizens.

Farmers forced to unload wheat on roadsides
From Satish Seth

KAITHAL: Wheat arrivals in the current rabi season broke last years' record and all mandis in the district including Kaithal, Cheeka, Pundri, Kalayat, Siwan, Rajound, Dhand and other purchase centres were flooded with wheat due to advance and bulk arrivals of the commodity, causing problems owing to slow lifting and lack of space in the mandis.

As a result many farmers were forced to unload their crops outside the mandis on the roadsides, obstructing the movement of vehicles.

The officials maintained that due to early maturity of the crop and use of harvester-combines the arrivals were advanced by a fortnight. This expedited wheat arrivals in bulk in the mandis.

In the initial stages, there were reports of shortage of "bardana", which delayed the packing of wheat in bags, but due to quick intervention by the authorities, this problem was overcome.

The Deputy Commissioner, Mr Jaiwanti Sheokand, said government agencies were allotted specific mandis and purchase centres to expedite wheat procurement. Till the last week of April, 3,41,528 tonnes of wheat had arrived in different mandis of the district as against 1,19,176 tonnes in the corresponding period last year. Of the total arrivals, the government agencies purchased 3,39,823 tonnes while private traders purchased 2,090 tonnes. Besides the bulk — 1,19,551 tonnes — was procured by the Food and Civil Supplies Department. Hafed purchased 1,05,680 tonnes, Haryana Warehousing Corporation 44,744 tonnes, Haryana Agro-Industries Corpn. 20,826 tonnes, Confed 37,152 tonnes and FCI 11,870 tonnes.

She observed that wheat arrivals generally remained spread over 30 to 40 days but this year owing to the bumper crop and good yield the wheat arrivals would be confined to 15 to 20 days. All this resulted in lack of space in the mandis, but she said that in spite of introduction of 50 kg bags (in place of 100 kg bags), the lifting was quick.

She also elaborated that besides her, senior officers including the Commissioner, Ambala Division and officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department and other procurement agencies concerned visited different mandis to ensure proper weighing and to see that other amenities were provided to farmers.

When this reporter visited Siwan mandi on the Kaithal-Patiala road, there was a lot of resentment among farmers and commission agents against the government and the Haryana marketing board which, they said, had failed to set up a pucca mandi. Thus farmers were forced to put their crop on the road side which invariably got mixed with earth and soil. There was no amenities worth the name at this place and the farmers kept their wheat at scattered places. The farmers at Kithana and Ramthali purchase centres complained of shortage of concrete platforms. They alleged that due to lack of space, a part of their crop kept in the open got damaged. Some complained of over weighing causing monetary loss to them. They also complained of non-availability of drinking water and lighting arrangements at night.

This reporter noticed long queues of trucks, tractor trolleys and other vehicles (see photo) waiting for their turn to unloading wheat. Some vehicle owners complained that they had to wait for hours in the scorching heat for their turn to unload their wheat stock.

Similarly, at a number of places it was noticed that wheat was being stored at open platforms and there was shortage of wooden crates. The covered storage capacity had been exhausted, as there was a stock of 20 lakh bags lying in government godowns from last year's crop and there was not much movement of foodgrain to other parts of the country.

This also affected the storage capacity forcing the government agencies to arrange for extra space, most of which was in the open.

Though the officials maintained that all arrangements were being made to stock the wheat at safer places and precautions taken to save it from any damage during the rainy season, but still many heaps of wheat were seen uncovered and a little laxity on the part of the government agencies can cost the exchequer dearly as happened during the past years.

Squall disrupts rail, phone services
From Tribune Reporters and UNI

CHANDIGARH, May 13 — Widespread rains preceded by high velocity squalls bringing succour to the people from scorching heat wave conditions, but disrupted telecommunication systems and trains services in Haryana and Punjab late last evening.

Uprooted trees blocked railway tracks on the Rajpura-Patiala-Dhuri-Sunam-Jakhal-Hisar-Bathinda-Sri Ganganagar sections of the Northern Railway.

This delayed running of as many as six passenger and a number of goods trains for more than two hours, a report from Ambala said.

The impact of the squall and storms was so strong that telecommunication lines connecting central telephone control office paralysed gate and outer warning signals at several stations.

The storms also affected telephone services and disrupted power supply, the report added.

Widespread rains accompanied by high velocity winds caused appreciable drop in the night temperatures while the day temperatures ruled two to six degrees below normal.

Narnaul in southern Haryana turned out to be the wettest place in the region recording 18 MM of rainfall followed by Hisar (11.4MM) till 8.30 a.m.

SONEPAT: Sonepat and its surrounding areas were lashed by heavy rains and thunder storms on Thursday bringing down the temperature considerably.

The downpour brought respite from the heat but led to power breakdowns in the city.

Essential services, including water supply were the worst-hit.

Several trees were uprooted which blocked the roads for traffic.

PANIPAT: Panipat and many other areas in the district were hit by a high velocity squalls on Wednesday.

The storm accompanied by heavy showers disrupted the power supply and vehicular traffic as trees were uprooted at many places.

SIRSA: The temperature plunged sharply following a shower on Wednesday making mercury fall to 39°C. During the last 24 hours 13.6MM railfall was recorded.

Haryana crosses 38-lakh wheat
purchase mark
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 13 — Haryana has surpassed the 38-lakh-tonne mark by procuring 38.08 lakh tonnes of wheat till yesterday of the total arrival of 38.33 lakh tonnes as against 27.43 lakh tonnes during the same period last year.

Stating this Prof Ganeshi Lal, Food and Supplies Minister, Haryana, said the state mandis had received 16,550 tonnes of wheat on May 12 in a single day out of which 15,847 tonnes of wheat was procured by the government procuring agencies. The Food and Supplies Department had procured 4977 tonnes, Hafed 6280 tonnes, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation 631 tonnes, Haryana Warehousing Corporation 3072 tonnes and Confed 883 tonnes.

He said the Food and Supplies department had procured 8.30 lakh tonnes of wheat, Hafed 13.89 lakh tonnes, Food Corporation of India 6.16 lakh tonnes, Haryana Agro Industries Corporation 2.85 lakh tonnes, Haryana Warehousing Corporation 3.94 lakh tonnes and Confed 2.93 lakh tonnes till yesterday.

I-card for disabled in Haryana
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, May 13 — The Haryana Government has decided to issue identity cards to all eligible disabled persons identified in the state.

This was disclosed by Mrs Meenaxi Anand Chaudhary, Financial Commissioner and Secretary, Social Welfare department, after presiding over the meeting of the State Executive Committee Implementation of the Disabilities Act,1995.

Mrs Chaudhary said it was decided that a separate Annual Plan should be prepared for the effective implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act with the active cooperation of the departments concerned. She said the Education department would identify the disabled students studying in schools and colleges for their proper and timely check up by the doctors of the Health department.

She said it was also decided that camps should be organised in Jind, Sonepat, Hisar, Fatehabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad districts in May and June to provide corrective surgery to the orthopaedically handicapped persons by the doctors from the State Health department and Pt B D Sharma Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak.

She stressed the need to lay special emphasis on the cure of blind persons having bilateral cataract. The Health department would formulate the plan to extend better services to the blind persons in the State.

21,000 students apply for BEd course
From Our Correspondent

ROHTAK, May 13 — The BEd course of Maharshi Dayanand University is gaining popularity among students, especially girls in the region. It has also emerged as the chief source of income for the university.

As many as 21,000 students have submitted forms for BEd (regular) against 1,250 seats till the last date of submission of forms this yeas. As many as students applied for the course in last year.

Due to popularity of the course the university administration has extended the last date for submission of forms from May 6 to May 17, with a late fee of Rs 500.

The authorities are hopeful of earning nearly Rs 70 lakh from the sale of admission forms for this course the university collected Rs 50 lakh from this course last year.

This source of income of the university has assumed significance in view of the financial problems being faced by it.

Meanwhile, the authorities revised the eligibility criteria for admission to the course. Now the entrance test will be criterion for admission. As much as 85 per cent seats of the course are reserved for bonafide residents of Haryana.

The minimum required percentage in graduation is 50 per cent for Arts students and 45 per cent for Science students.

GJU to absorb staff on deputation
From Our Correspondent

HISAR, May 13 — All employees who were shifted from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, to Guru Jambheshwar University here in 1996 when the university was established, will now be permanently absorbed by the university. A formal notification in this regard will be issued soon. The Registrar of GJU held a meeting with the Vice-Chancellor of Kurukshetra University recently to resolve the matter.

Nineteen employees in Guru Jambheshwar University are on extraordinary leave or deputation from Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. There are seven employees who have come from Kurukshetra University. The employees who had come from CCS Haryana Agricultural University have already been absorbed except one Deputy Registrar.

The absorption of the employees as decided by the Executive Council of the university will be effective from August 31, 1996.

Rs 12 crore power plan under way
From Our Correspondent

PANIPAT, May 13 — A Rs 12 crore comprehensive plan to strengthen the transmission and distribution systems in Panipat is being executed by the Haryana power Transmission Corporation (TRANSCO) with the help of the World Bank.

Disclosing this, the Deputy Commissioner, Mr Anurag Rastogi, said under this plan, 132 KV substations would be set up on the local G.T. Road, Kutani Road, Asandh Road and in Diwana village.

Besides this, he said the plan also included steps for improving the 11 KV transmission system.

The Deputy Commissioner said work was on to replace over-loaded transformers with transformers having higher capacity.

Brickkiln workers' demands met
From Our Correspondent

YAMUNANAGAR, May 13 — A Rs 2 crore package has been awarded to brickkiln workers in the district following an amicable settlement between brickkiln owners and workers.

Mr Ramesh Malhotra, president, Haryana Brickkiln Workers Union, said here today that due to timely intervention by the district administration and Local Bodies Minister Kamla Verma, the main demands of the workers including revision of rate for moulding bricks had been revised from Rs 116 per thousand bricks to Rs 138 per thousand bricks with effect from January 1, 1999.

Mr Malhotra said there were 20,000 brickklin workers in the district working in 92 brickkilns.

An agitation was launched by the workers on April 24 when a charter of demands was submitted to the Labour Department. The Deputy Commissioner, Yamunanagar, took a keen interest to resolve the issue, resulting in the Rs 2 crore package.

Gang of cheats busted
From Our Correspondent

KURUKSHETRA, May 13 — An inter-state gang of cheats has been busted by the district police.

Stating this here today, the district police chief, Mr Alok Roy, said the three gang members, Rajpal, alias Raju, a resident of Jundla Gate, Karnal, Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Ahar, Panipat, and Joginder Singh, alias Nikka, a resident of Ammupur Dera Shri Ram, Thana Nissing, Karnal had been arrested by the crime branch and two currency notes of Rs 10 denomination bearing the same number recovered from the procession of Rajpal and Sanjay.

Mr Roy said the gang members had been operating in Delhi and different districts of the state. While confessing to the crime, Rajpal informed the police that Jitender, alias Pinda, a resident of Kaul village in Kaithal also worked with them.

Talking about the modus operandi, Rajpal said the members converted the figures of 3 to 8 and 1 to 4 on the real currency notes.