Raipur : An officer of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer was killed in a gunfight with the Maoists in a dense forest in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh, the police said on Saturday.

The gunfight took place last night in Kistaram police station area when a team of CRPF’s 212th battalion was out on a search-cum-area domination operation, Deputy Inspector General of Police (South Bastar Range) Sundarraj P told.

“Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Anil Kumar Maurya was killed in the incident,” he said.

The deceased was a native of Madhya Pradesh.

Security forces have launched a combing operation in the area, located around 500 km away from the state capital Raipur, he added.

New Delhi : Piqued at wrangling between bureaucrats of Delhi and Haryana over supply of water to the National Capital, the Supreme Court on Thursday summoned their chief secretaries to appear before it on Monday.
“People are dying. But no urgency is being shown by you people,” said a Bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, who took a strong note on the apathy shown by the authorities concerned in dealing with the water crisis in the National Capital.
It directed the two senior bureaucrats to appear before it in person on April 23 after the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said it was not receiving enough water to supply to Delhi residents.

The Delhi government has been in talks with Haryana for the release of 450 cusecs of water from the Yamuna daily for the National Capital.
Last month, the DJB had moved the top court seeking a direction to Haryana to release 450 cusecs of water per day meant for the Wazirabad reservoir in Delhi. Haryana was supplying 120 cusecs less water, the DJB alleged.

In its petition, the DJB had accused Haryana of reducing the supply of water to the Wazirabad reservoir by one-third, leading to a serious water crisis in the National Capital. The Haryana government was violating the 1996 top court order regarding supply of water, it alleged.

Haryana was supplying only 330 cusecs of water per day to Delhi as against 450 cusecs per day agreed upon between the two sides. While Delhi’s population had increased phenomenally over the years, there had not been a commensurate rise in the water supply, the DJB had submitted.

Due to drop in water level in the Yamuna, water treatment plants either stopped functioning or were running on below capacity, the DJB said accusing Haryana of releasing polluted water which could not be treated. As a result, the DJB was rationing water supply, causing water shortage in large parts of Delhi, it submitted.
The DJB said the situation was likely to get worse with the onset of summer and rising demand for drinking water.

“Delhi is in the midst of an acute water crisis owing to stopping of supply of water by Haryana from the Yamuna, which is meant for drinking purposes in Delhi. It is most respectfully submitted that Haryana is defying the directions of this court to supply drinking water at Wazirabad reservoir and is taking undue advantage of being an upper riparian state,” read the DJB plea.

“It has converted the river leading to Delhi into a dry river having virtually no water at Delhi and resultantly stoppage of supply meant for drinking water for treatment at Wazirabad reservoir. As otherwise, the coming summer in Delhi is going to see a huge water crisis,” it had said, demanding a daily monitoring of water quantity and the quality at the barrage by an independent agency.

Delhi and Haryana had on Monday accused each other in the SC over minutes of a meeting on the issue. The Bench had asked the Central Government counsel to seek instructions from the Secretary of the ministry and get back. It had also asked the Delhi government to make a formal request to Haryana for 150 cusecs of water.
Delhi Jal Board’s plea

Haryana has reduced the supply of water to the Wazirabad reservoir by one-third, leading to a serious water crisis in the National Capital

Haryana has been violating the 1996 top court order regarding the supply of water
Haryana supplying only 330 cusecs of water per day to Delhi as against 450 cusecs per day agreed upon between the two sides

Panchkula : A special CBI court granted regular bail to seven accused, including former principal secretaries Chattar Singh, ML Tayal and SS Dhillon, in connection with the Manesar land deal case, here.

CBI Judge Jagdeep Singh granted regular bail to these accused, who were present in the court, on two sureties of Rs5 lakh each.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and sitting Punjab and Haryana High Court judge’s son Gaurav Chaudhary, who is the director of Flair Realtors Pvt Ltd and Metropolis Realtors, were given medical exemption by the CBI court.

Hooda’s counsels SPS Parmar and Abhishek Rana submitted before the court that Hooda was unwell and had fractured leg and was undergoing treatment at AIIMS, Delhi.

The accused were also given copies of chargesheet submitted by the CBI recently.
The court has fixed the next date of hearing on May 1.

The others who were granted bail included Jaswant Singh, the then District Town Planner (HQ), Atul Bansal, director of ABW Infrastructure Ltd, Naveen Rao and Virender Kumar Jain.

Atul Bansal and Naveen Rao had appeared in the court after lunch and the Judge even pulled them up for coming late.

Earlier, the CBI court had dismissed pre-arrest bail plea of Gaurav Chaudhary, while an anticipatory bail plea of Tayal was dismissed.

The CBI, on February 2, had filed a chargesheet running into 80,000 pages against 34 persons, including Hooda, Chattar Singh, Tayal and Dhillon.

The CBI claimed the state government had issued notifications under the Land Acquisition Act for acquiring 912 acres in Manesar, Naurangpur and Lakhnoula villages in Gurugram district for an industrial model township.

Chandigarh : BJP state president Shwait Malik on Friday said the Congress had conspired to put Punjab in an explosive situation on the issue of Dalits after the recent incidents at Phagwara.

He said their workers would launch a ‘Congress, Punjab Chhodo’ programme as part of our ‘Punjab Bachao’ programme.

He alleged that the Congress did not allow good education for Dalits which did not let them rise socially and they were used as mere vote banks.

He said their alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal would continue as had been decided by the high command.

Chandigarh : With huge quantities of wheat from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan finding its way into Haryana owing to crashing of prices there, the state government on Thursday ordered sealing of its porous borders with these states.

The Palwal grain market, that has proximity to these three states, has been closed for further procurement after it was discovered that 3.73 lakh metric tonne of wheat has already been procured against 2.98 lakh MT purchased during the entire season last year. Additional Chief Secretary (Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs) Ram Niwas wrote to DGP BS Sandhu, requesting him to seal border entry points to prevent unauthorised movement of wheat into Haryana’s grain markets.

“We have reports that some traders in grain markets of Delhi, UP and Rajasthan, where the prices of wheat have dipped Rs 150 to Rs 200 below the MSP, have been making an easy buck by selling wheat purchased from there in our mandis,” Ram Niwas told.

Sources said besides Palwal, reports of wheat coming from other states have also been received from Sonepat and Karnal. The authorities in Karnal cancelled the licences of six arhtiyas from Taraori town after they were found bringing wheat from UP for sale in the mandi.

Karnal District Food and Supplies Controller (DFSC) Kushal Boora said they were caught by a team of officials with wheat brought in an unauthorised manner from UP and hence their licences were cancelled by the Market Committee authorities. 
Sources said against the MSP of Rs 1,735 per quintal, wheat was available for Rs 1,550 to Rs 1,650 in the open market in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan because of poor government procurement.

The difference in rates is a huge temptation for traders, as the arrival of an additional 1 lakh MT wheat in Palwal means that some unscrupulous traders might have earned around Rs 20 crore, sources said.

Arrival of wheat from neighbouring states is not a new phenomenon, as Haryana has been facing this problem almost year after year. On March 20, Ram Niwas had written to all DCs that the huge arrival of wheat from bordering states, particularly UP, cannot be ruled out, as all districts of the state, barring Rohtak, had boundaries with some other state.

Again, during a video-conferencing with DCs and District Food and Supplies Controllers on March 26, the ACS emphasised the need to plug unauthorised arrival from UP to grain markets in Yamunanagar, Panipat, Palwal and Karnal districts.
Meanwhile, 50.34 lakh MT of wheat had been procured in different grain markets of the state.