Hisar :
A district-level volleyball player was shot dead by armed assailants at Siswal village of Hisar district, police said here on Wednesday.

The incident took place around 10 pm on Tuesday under Adampur police station area when Kuldeep (25) was returning to his house in the village on a bike from the community centre’s volleyball ground, police said.

Before he could reach home, unidentified people came and opened several rounds of fire at Kuldeep, killing him on the spot, they said.

There was no streetlight when the firing incident took place and the accused managed to flee from the spot, the victim’s kin said.

After receiving information, the police and a forensic team reached the spot and started investigation.

The police have sent the body to civil hospital here for post-mortem examination.
A case had been registered and investigation was on, the police said.

Chandigarh :
The Haryana Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here on Tuesday, gave its approval for the reduction in VAT rate from 20 per cent to 1 per cent on the sale of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) under the Regional Connectivity Scheme at the RCS airports and for the RCS flights from other airports located within the state.

The RCS-UDAN was launched by the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation with a view to facilitating regional connectivity by making it affordable.

An MoU was signed by the Haryana Government with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, Chairman, Airports Authority of India. Under the MoU, VAT would be reduced to 1 per cent or less on the ATF at the RCS airports (as notified by the government) and for the RCS flights from other airports located within the state for three years.

In another decision, the cabinet gave approval for the setting up of a special purpose vehicle (SPV), that is, Haryana International Horticultural Marketing Corporation Limited (HIHMCL), incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, to facilitate work of the international terminal market within a fixed time-frame.

Approval was also accorded to a proposal to amend the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojna— Affordable Plotted Housing Policy, 2016.

As per the amendments, applications for licence under the Deen Dayal Jan Awas Yojna, 2016, would now be allowed for up to 40 per cent of the net planned area of sectors and applications shall continue to be received after the expiry of the opening window of 90 days.

Some other Cabinet decisions  

In view of geographic contiguity and administrative convenience, the government has decided the shifting of three villages Jaitpur Shekhpur, Noorpur and Chillar under the area of Patwar circle from sub-tehsil Palhawas to Rewari tehsil in Rewari district and five villages Margain, Manglaura, Ganjogarhi, Naglamegha and Ranwar from tehsil and sub-division Gharaunda to tehsil and sub-division Karnal in Karnal district

It was decided to grant sanction for the engagement of additional 1,000 ex-servicemen from the Army as special police officers (SPOs) for performing night duty in the Police Commissionerate, Gurugram

The Cabinet gave its approval for increasing the retirement age of regular medical officers working in HVPNL and HPGCL from 58 to 65, for performing clinical duties as consultant and senior consultant

It was decided to construct a road from Bandholi to Kidaner up to the Rajasthan border in Nuh district at an estimated cost of over Rs 81.63 lakh. With the construction of this road, the distance between Bandholi (Haryana) and Kidaner (Rajasthan) would be reduced by about 20 km

The Cabinet decided to sell 50 per cent of the total carved-out plots in the timber market, Manakpur in Jagadhari by open auction amongst the timber traders of the notified market area of Market Committee, Jagadhari only.

Hisar :
A violent clash erupted over water between residents of two villages in Hansi sub-division late Monday night. At least 12 persons, including panchayat members, were injured. Eight motorcycles and a pump set were set afire.

The residents of Dhani Peeranwali installed a motor pump to draw water from Puthi minor. Residents of nearby Puthi Mangal Khan village objected to it. They dispersed on being told Dhani Peeranwali had the  permission to do so, but returned in larger numbers. An argument led to a clash. The panchayats later met, but failed to sort out the matter. A case has been filed against 300-400 persons.

Water samples taken from schools fail test

As many as 20 samples taken from various schools in Fazilka have failed the quality test. Sources said the Water Supply and Sanitation Department had collected 49 samples in the past 15 days. However, 25 samples taken from water tanks in villages were found fit for consumption, they added.

Latter owe Rs 300 cr since 2011; cops ‘soft’ in 95 FIRs against them
 

Chandigarh :
With rice millers owing over Rs 300 crore to the state government since 2011 and the police allegedly soft in nearly 95 FIRs against them, the government on Tuesday decided to get tough with them by constituting special investigation teams (SITs) to bring the unscrupulous millers to book.

A decision to set up SITs in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal and Yamunanagar districts of the state where a majority of the defaulting rice millers are based was taken today at a meeting headed by Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Minister Karan Dev Kamboj.

The department’s Additional Chief Secretary Ram Niwas, Director Sanjeev Verma and other senior officials were present on the occasion, while the ADGP (Law and Order) Mohammad Akil represented the police.

Sources said the amount of Rs 300 crore was merely the cost of custom-milled rice these millers owed, but since the government also charged interest and penalty and the defaults were from 2011 onwards, the actual amount was much more than this.

Sources said one such FIR, lodged against a Pehowa (Kurukshetra)-based miller who defaulted in delivering 957 MT rice worth Rs 1.87 crore, dated back to 2011.
In 2012, another mill from Kurukshetra defaulted in delivering 1609 MT rice worth Rs 3.58 crore belonging to the government.

As many as 38 FIRs were registered in 2013 against as many millers from Ambala, Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Kaithal and other districts and the defaulting amount in these cases was more than Rs 85 crore.

Similar FIRs were registered against millers in 2014, 2015, 2016 and five FIRs were lodged in 2017, with defaulting amount over Rs 300 crore.
The defaulting amount of these millers ranged between a little over Rs 1 crore and Rs 8 crore per miller.

Sources said though FIRs are registered against these dealers since 2011, the police had been soft against them.

In many cases, the police failed to arrest them and in others, millers got bail because the police did not file challans in courts.

Under the custom milling of rice (CMR), various procurement agencies of the government supply paddy to millers against which the miller has to deliver 67 kg of rice for every quintal of paddy he gets.

The government pays Rs 10 per quintal as milling charges to the millers, besides paying transportation charges for bringing paddy to his mill and rice to the warehouses of the government.

Along with this, the miller also gets for free the husk, rice bran and “nakku” (broken corners of rice which is ground and used as flour for dosas), which are the byproducts of the CMR process.

The Tribune has learnt that from every quintal of paddy, 67 kg rice is derived, nearly 20 kg husk is generated, 7 kg of rice bran is produced and 2 kg of “nakku” is also left with the millers.

Millers also earn income from these as husk sells for Rs 200 to 300 per quintal, rice bran for Rs 1,700 to 1,800 per quintal and Nakku from Rs 12 to 20 per kg.

Despite this, several unscrupulous rice millers fail to deliver rice to the government and fraudulently sell it in the open market in criminal breach of trust.

In many cases, connivance of senior officials of the department has also come to the fore and action has also been taken in some cases.

Rewari :
Several illegal pollution checking centres have mushroomed on the Delhi-Jaipur highway in the district.

The centres neither have the licence to operate nor have the machine to check pollution level of vehicles. In spite of this, the centres are issuing “pollution under control certificates” by charging Rs 50 from vehicle owners.

This came to light after the police on Sunday raided six such centres on the NH-8. 
“Only 56 centres are authorised to issue the certificates in Rewari district, but the number of centres is much higher. Centres continue to function even after the expiry of their licences,” the sources said, adding the Road Transport Authority (RTA) issues the licence to private agencies for a year.

A recent report of the RTA brought out that illegal pollution centres were operating in kiosks at petrol pumps and functioned especially during the night. 

“We got a tip-off that pollution checking centres are operational without licences. Decoy customers were sent to the centres to find out the veracity of the claim. Men at the centres issued them certificates without checking the registration certificates after charging Rs 50,” said Superintendent of Police Rajesh Duggal.

The men at the centres were also collecting road tax from vehicle owners. A board in this respect was put outside the kiosks. 

“Besides laptops and printers, several blank certificates were seized from the centres, while five men were arrested,” the SP said.

“The investigation is in progress. Maybe, influential persons are involved in this illegal trade. As kiosks were located at petrol pumps, pump owners will also be grilled,” Duggal added. 

Pardeep Dahiya, Additional Deputy Commissioner and RTA Secretary, said a special campaign would be launched in the district soon to check more pollution checking centres.