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Haryana reels under power cuts
SC allows police shake-up
VAT on dhaba food goes, cut on poultry
Engineering wing loses power
SEZs aimed at grabbing land: MP
Hooda for special status to Mewat, Panchkula areas
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Ceiling cooler innovator rues lack of support
Arrest warrant against Hooda
One arrested for killing cousin
Bull derailed Sriganganagar Express: official
Jobs for Ahirwal youth demanded
Woman remanded in murder case
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Haryana reels under power cuts
Chandigarh, August 17 In spite of this, the state is reeling
under one of the worst power crises witnessed till date. For almost
three weeks beginning the last week of July, power generation at Nathpa-Jakhri
remained shut because of excessive silt deposition. Even as the units at
Nathpa-Jakhri became operational earlier this week, the gas supply to
power plants in North India was cut because of the floods in Gujarat.
As a result, all industrial units in Haryana are witnessing a 13-14
hour cut, while seven-to-eight-hour power cuts have been imposed on all
urban and domestic consumers. The agriculture sector is getting six-hour
three-phase supply for operating tubewells and additional four hours of
the two-phase supply. The delay in monsoons has further aggravated the
power crisis. During this month till date, Haryana had received just 8.1
mm of rainfall as against normal 182 mm. As a result, there is no
letdown in the demand in the agriculture sector. Senior officials in
Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL) informed TNS that
the demand for power in the state had shot up to 860 lakh units (LUs) a
day. As against this, the total power availability was 750 LUs, which
included 50 LUs purchased through bilateral agreements and 50 LUs
through UI. “The state is purchasing power at the rate of Rs 5 per
unit from other state electricity boards. The floods in Gujarat have led
to a cut in gas supply to the power stations at Faridabad, Anta, Auriya
and Dadri, leading to a reduction of 70 per cent power through these
gas-based plants of National Thermal Power Corporation. As compared to
Re 1 per unit being spent to produce power through these plants, Punjab,
Haryana and Delhi have to spend Rs 6 per unit to get power through
liquid gas,” informed a top official in HPGCL. Ms Jyoti Arora,
Managing Director of HPGCL, said the erratic transfer of power through
the High Voltage Direct Current poles, from Sangrauli and Rihand had
affected the short-term power purchases. “As against 119 LUs of power
that Haryana used to get from other state electricity boards, we are
getting just 50 LUs. Efforts are on to revive power supply from surplus
states, with whom we had signed agreements earlier,” she said. |
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SC allows police shake-up
New Delhi, August 17 The Haryana Government in last October had ordered transfer of police officials of the rank of Sub-Inspectors, Assistant Sub-Inspectors, Head Constables and Constables out of their home districts. The transfers were effected following a large number of complaints about personnel developing vested interests with anti-social elements at the local level due to their continued stay near their home towns. A Bench of Mr Justice G.P. Mathur and Mr Justice A.K. Mathur in an interim order said "the operation of the impugned judgement and order of April 4, 2006 of the High Court shall remain stayed." The order, issued on August 14 was made available to the media today. The High Court in its judgement had quashed the transfer orders allowing a writ petition by some personnel led by a woman constable Vinod Kumari. At least 16 other petitions were moved in the High Court after the one filed by Vinod Kumari and the judgement in her case was made applicable to all of them, virtually rendering the entire transfer process ineffective. Aggrieved by the High Court order, the state had moved the apex court in an appeal that raised the question of the court's interference in the policy making of the government. Haryana's Additional Advocate General (AAG) Ajay Siwach told the Bench that no illegality had been committing by the state in effecting the transfers as they were made under the rules empowering the government to carry on such transfers in the interest of the administration. Under the Police Act, 1861 and the Punjab Police Rules framed thereunder in 1934, the government was justified in doing a shake up of the police force in order to make it more efficient, Mr Siwach argued. "Several police officials have developed unwanted relations with bad elements of the society and sometimes have been found mixing up with criminals," he said, adding the objective was to minimise the incidents of the police nexus with anti-social elements. "Due to the special nature of duties of the police force, such steps are necessary to improve the efficiency and output of the police personnel," the Haryana's AAG said. |
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VAT on dhaba food goes, cut on poultry
Chandigarh, August 17 The decision was taken by the Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, here. It also reduced VAT on certain products, including desi ghee, candles and processed meat, poultry and fish from 12.5 per cent to 4 per cent. These measures will benefit people to the tune of about Rs 22 crore. The Cabinet approved a draft ordinance to be promulgated for the setting up of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya at Khanpur Kalan in Sonepat district. At its last meeting the Cabinet had decided to set up a women’s university at Khanpur Kalan. It also decided to conduct a survey before taking any decision to regularise 51 unauthorised colonies around Ballabgarh, old Faridabad town and NIT Faridabad. The Cabinet approved the Haryana Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Rules, 2006, regulating the health and safety of the children employed in various establishments. It would be mandatory for every establishment to maintain a register of the children employed, on a yearly basis, but it will be retained by the employer for three years after the date of the last entry. Every child in employment or seeking employment would have to produce a certificate of age from the appropriate medical authority wherever required to do so by an inspector. The rules say that the total number of working hours for a child labourer, inclusive of the intervals for meals and rest, should not exceed 30 hours in one week or five hours a day. Moreover, a child labourer would not be employed continuously for more than three hours without an interval of at least one hour for meals or rest. The Cabinet decided to provide relaxation of 5 per cent marks at the level of Master’s degree to physically and visually challenged candidates for appointment to the post of lecturer in the college cadre. It also decided to amend the Haryana
Education (College Cadre) Group B Service Rules, 1986, to give relaxation of 5 per cent marks also to the holders of the PhD degree and those who had passed matriculation from the rural areas of the state. The Cabinet decided to open state-of-the-art hotel-cum-hospitality management institutes in the Tilyar tourist complex in Rohtak and the Badkhal complex in Faridabad under the public-private partnership scheme. The entire investment would be made by private parties. |
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Engineering wing loses power
Chandigarh, August 17 The move, official sources said, is aimed at curbing corruption by the
EW, curtailing red-tapism resulting in delays, and most importantly, to empower the panchayats to have the financial control over development works carried out in areas under their jurisdictions. All works up to Rs 3 lakhs (80 per cent of the works in a village fall in this category) expenditure shall be henceforth executed by the gram panchayat directly by hiring labourers on the wage muster roll basis. For preparation of estimates, technical support, supervision, etc, the panchayat will be allowed to engage qualified engineers from a panel prepared by the respective district administration. Up to 2 per cent of the cost of the project shall be allowed to be used for hiring personnel. While the SDO of the EW will scrutinise and give technical sanction to the estimates, the exercise should not take more than 15 days, says the
communique. If technical sanction is not accorded within 15 days, the gram panchayat concerned will be free to start work as per estimate prepared by private engineers. The Executive Engineer of the
EW, meanwhile, will have to explain to the head office the reason for not according the sanction. Permitting gram panchayats to engage private engineers shall not dilute the responsibility of the EW toward proper preparation of estimates and supervision of works during execution. After completion of a work, “verification of the work carried out” shall be made by the Junior Engineer and SDO of the
EW concerned within a period of one month of completion. Any delay or lapse will not be tolerated in this regard, the communique says. Funds earmarked for a project shall be deposited, through advise to a bank where the gram panchayat concerned will have its account. The existing procedure of handing over cheques and drafts to the sarpanches by government officials shall be discontinued. Similarly, all works above Rs 3 lakh and up to Rs 50 lakh shall be accomplished by inviting tenders. A district level committee headed by the Deputy Commissioner shall take the final decision regarding allocating the work. Works costing above Rs 50 lakh shall be tendered by a state-level committee headed by Director, Panchayats. The payments will be made by the district-level committee after approval from the state-level committee. |
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SEZs aimed at grabbing land: MP
Hisar, August 17 Talking to The Tribune after delivering a speech in the Lok Sabha regarding the matter today, Mr Bishnoi maintained that the SEZ policy was against the interests of the farming community as well as agriculture in general. Terming the SEZ policy as “pro-industrialist and anti-farmer”, the Congress MP pointed out that there was no logic in using large chunks of cultivable land for developing SEZs, especially in view of the need to step up foodgrain production for the ever-increasing population. “On the one hand, we are forced to import wheat at high price to maintain our buffer stock and on the other we are bent upon using fertile land for industrial development and economic advancement,” he said, adding that the policy was flawed. Launching a tirade against Central and Haryana governments led by his own party, Mr Bishnoi claimed that according to an internal assessment carried out by the Union Finance Ministry in 2005, the government would lose Rs 90,000 crore in direct and indirect taxes due to the exemption given to SEZs in the next four years. “The SEZs enjoy unbridled freedom in exemption from all sorts of taxes and the way the laws are structured, these SEZs will have full autonomy of operation and will be outside the purview of the statutory laws of the land,” he remarked. Mr Bishnoi asserted that resistance against the move to develop the SEZs was quietly building up amongst the masses and “the common man was gearing up to fight yet another battle of survival.” |
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Hooda for special status to Mewat, Panchkula areas
Panchkula, August 17 Mr Hooda was interacting with mediapersons after inaugurating a Rs 4-crore printing machine set up by Indian Express Group of Newspapers in Sector 6, here. A nano city would be developed by Sameer Bhatia near Naraingarh over 5,000 acres. A memorandum of understanding had been signed in this regard, he added. The Chief Minister maintained that the Haryana Government was committed to the development of Panchkula and efforts were on to provide all basic amenities to the people. Efforts were being made to provide better basic amenities to residents of the city than those already being provided in Chandigarh. To a question, he said an IT Park was also being set up near Panchkula and there was a good response from those who were willing to set up their establishments in the district. He asserted that the site was the best one in the country. A Golf Club of international standards had also been set up to provide recreational facilities. “Whoever comes to Panchkula with an idea to invest will prosper”, Mr Hooda stated. The Chief Minister said the work on the bypass on National Highway No. 22 would start soon as the tender for the same had been floated. While extending his greetings to the Indian Express Group, he said all those newspapers, which had editions of the state had met with unprecedented success. The Manager of the Express group, Mr Ranjeet Verma, presented the first copy of the newspaper from the new machine to the Chief Minister. Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan also extended his greetings to the group. He said with the installation of the press at Panchkula, the district would get wider coverage. Power Minister Venod Sharma, Tourism Minister for State Kiran Chaudhary, Parliamentary Secretary Ram Kishan, Media Advisor to Chief Minister Sunder Pal Singh, Deputy Commissioner Brijender Singh, Administrator, HUDA Neelam P. Kasni, SP Balbir Singh, senior officers of the district administration and representatives of the newspaper group were present at the venue. |
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Ceiling cooler innovator rues lack of support
Ambala, August 17 Mr Saluja, a resident of Ambala Cantonment, has developed a ceiling cooler. It is similar to a traditional cooler but its advantages set it apart from the latter one. However, Mr Saluja is far from happy due to the “lack of support” to his effort. “I am not getting any support for turning my innovation into a commercial venture,” he said. He was assured Rs 10 lakh for starting a commercial venture by the Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (Gian) North, but nothing had come out of that assurance. “I do not know from whom to seek help. It is a difficult situation for me,” he said. Mr Saluja is an electrician. He had to spend a considerable part of his meagre savings for turning his dream into reality. However, Jaipur-based senior manager (product development), Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (North), Mr Rajeev Kumar Singhal, said Mr Saluja’s claim did not hold water. “I must first make it clear that we are not bankers. We are facilitators and we provide extensive assistance to innovators,” he said. “We have made no commitment to Mr Saluja for Rs 10 lakh. In any case, such a large sum cannot be committed by any institution for developing a product which costs a few thousand rupees,” he added. He said Mr Gopal Saluja’s innovation was selected during the fifth campaign of the National Innovation Foundation. “The fifth campaign is currently on and we are still accepting entries. Now, the facilitation process is in the advanced stages for the innovators in the third campaign. The fifth campaign will be taken up after the fourth-campaign facilitation is over,” he said. He said a sum of Rs 6,000 was provided to Mr Gopal Saluja for developing the prototype. “Mr Saluja had told us that there were buyers for his product so we encouraged him to make a few ceiling coolers so that he could get buyers’ feedback. The feedback would be helpful in further improving the product before the start of the commercial production,” he said. The ceiling cooler developed by Mr Gopal Saluja has comparatively low electricity consumption, low water consumption, costs less than traditional coolers and it is inverter compatible. The ceiling cooler is fitted around the ceiling fan and there is automatic water supply. The ceiling cooler has been tested at Electronics Test and Development Centre and its working was found to be satisfactory. |
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Arrest warrant against Hooda
New Delhi, August 17 On June 21, 2002, Mr Hooda, then the leader of Opposition and Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee head, had addressed a farmers’ rally at Ram Lila Ground here. A poster of the rally was put up in the Minto Road based Sarvodaya Kendriya Vidyalya, which is an offence.
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One arrested for killing cousin
Panipat, August 17 According to the police, Ashok, after killing Seema, a student of Class III in the government school of the village, threw her body in an abandoned well and left for his relatives’ place in Punjab on Tuesday last. The parents of the girl, who found their daughter missing, reported the matter to the Smalkha police and mentioned the name of Ashok as suspect. On the complaint of Ishwar, the father of victim, the police brought Ashok from Punjab who during interrogation told the police about the well leading to the recovery of the body of the girl. The police has arrested the accused. |
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Bull derailed Sriganganagar Express: official
Ambala, August 17 Mr Meena said the train got derailed between Alal and Sekha stations at about 8.35 am. The Accident Relief Train was rushed to the site along with a team of doctors. None of the passengers suffered any serious injuries. It was towed back to the Dhuri station where special buses were hired to ferry 124 passengers to their respective stations free of cost. |
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Jobs for Ahirwal youth demanded
Rewari, August 17 It also asked the government to give an assurance that the tail-end areas of Rewari and Mahendergarh districts would get adequate water from the Hansi-Butana link canal. |
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Woman remanded in murder case
Ambala, August 17 Amarjeet Kaur and her paramour Ravinder Saini had allegedly attacked Pavitar Singh with a rod on the night of August 14 in Sabka village. His body was found in the
morning. |
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