Chandigarh : In all, 13 MPs and MLAs are involved in as many criminal cases in Haryana. The situation is a shade worse in Punjab with 19 MPs and MLAs involved in 29 cases. Information to this effect was furnished by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Information provided by the High Court also made it clear that just one case was decided in a year in Haryana while the number of cases decided after expiry of one year was five. As a result, seven cases were still pending.

In Punjab, no case was decided in a year while just two cases were decided after expiry of one year, resulting in pendency of 27 cases.
The apex court had ordered in March 2014 that cases against people’s representatives should be disposed of within a year.

The Centre had already informed the Supreme Court that 3,816 criminal cases were registered against 1,765 MPs and MLAs. This information was provided by 23 High Courts and did not include cases registered in Maharashtra and Goa.
Just about two months back, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had called for information from both Punjab and Haryana on criminal cases pending before it against legislators and parliamentarians.

The High Court had asked Haryana Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan and his Punjab counterpart Atul Nanda to furnish details of criminal cases involving MPs and MLAs pending in the High Court.

A communication for bringing the dark side of politics to the High Court’s direct notice was sent to them from the office of the High Court Registrar General.
The Supreme Court’s 2013 judgment bars a convicted politician from contesting elections for six years from the date the sentence ends. The information comes at a time when the Centre has agreed to set up special courts to deal with cases against the country’s elected representatives.

The Law Ministry, in its affidavit, said: “As per directions of the Supreme Court, it is proposed to have 12 special courts with an estimated expenditure of Rs7.8 crore over a period of one year to dispose of all cases involving political persons.”
In 2014, 1,581 lawmakers were facing prosecution in 13,500 cases. On an average, 4,200 cases were being handled by each of the 17,000 subordinate courts.
The apex court had ordered in March 2014 that cases against people’s representatives should be disposed of within a year.

Situation worse in Punjab; 19 people’s representatives named in criminal cases 
The apex court had ordered in March 2014 that cases against people's representatives should be disposed of within a year
The Centre had already informed the SC 3,816 criminal cases were registered against 1,765 MPs and MLAs

Dehradun : Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said modernisation of Indian Army was under way. She credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the modernisation programme. 
The Defence Minister was here on Sunday to honour students of the state, who have been selected in Indian Military Academy and National Defence Academy in the recent years. 
“When you join the forces after competition of training at your respective academies, you will be proud to join a modernised Indian Army”, Sitharaman said addressing the gathering of successful students. 
She also asserted that the Army was fully prepared to deal with any situation. 
The minister recalled her visit to the Uttarakhand region during childhood days, pointing that the region was then known for Char Dham yatra. “But today Uttarakhand is also known as Veer Bhumi as a large number of youth from the state join defence forces these days”, she said. 
The minister also praised Col Ajay Kothiyal, Director, National Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, for his efforts towards motivating the state youth to join the armed forces. 
  Nirmala Sitharaman also handed over a cheque of Rs 50,000 each to the successful student of Uttarakhand, who have been selected in Indian Military Academy and National Defence Academy from 2014 to 2018. A total of 140 selected students were felicitated by the minister. She also honoured family members of Victoria Cross awardee Late Gabbar Singh Negi, Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali and other defence forces martyrs.
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said it was a matter of honour that Prime Minister had reposed faith in a daughter of the country by making Nirmala Sitharaman as defence minister of the country.
Chief of Army Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, Uttarakhand Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh Rawat and Mussoorie BJP MLA Ganesh Joshi were among the prominent persons present on the occasion.

Hisar : Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday targeted the Centre, alleging that never before had so many “bank scams” taken place under any regime since India’s independence even as he declared that his party would contest the next Assembly polls in Haryana.
Kejriwal asked the people of the state to reject the ruling BJP as well as the opposition Congress and the INLD.
He claimed both the BJP governments at the Centre as well as in Haryana had failed the people.
“The number of bank scams that have taken place during the Modi government’s time; never before had so many scams taken place under any government since independence,” Kejriwal claimed at his party’s ‘Haryana Bachao’ rally here.
“I want to ask PM Narendra Modi, that if people of this country want to deposit their hard-earned money, which bank is safe? What if the bank goes bankrupt and all the money of the public is gone,” he said taking a jibe.
“Second question I want to ask Mr Modi is that Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi escaped with thousands of crores. When will they be arrested? When will we get our money back?” he continued.
Attacking the Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana, Kejriwal claimed the state witnessed several incidents of violence ever since the BJP assumed power and many innocents were killed and property worth crores of rupees destroyed.
The AAP national convenor, who hails from Haryana, asked the people of the state to strengthen his party. “Only you can build a new Haryana.”
AAP will contest the next elections, he said referring to Assembly elections. “We will create a new Haryana. If you want peace, security, schools, hospitals, roads, then vote for AAP,” he said.
Senior AAP leaders Sushil Gupta, Gopal Rai and Navin Jaihind also addressed the gathering.

Rohtak : Even as the state government claims that it is making endeavours to double farmers’ income by 2022, some progressive agriculturists are already earning more than double the normal income of a farmer, simply by taking the road less travelled.
Many of these progressive farmers have assembled here at the 3rd Agri Leadership Summit–2018 underway at Mela Ground, where they have exhibited their products, and are also sharing their success stories with other farmers.
Sant Lal, for instance, ran an auto garage in Hisar. Abid Hassan, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, who grows aloe vera in Churu district of Rajasthan, used to visit his workshop for repair of his car. Hassan used to goad Sant Lal to start aloe vera farming. He used to tell him that the plant is easy to grow even on a semi-arid or arid soil and needed no pesticides or fertilisers.
With no ancestral land, Sant Lal teamed with Mukesh Soni and Raja Soni, both of whom dealt in used tyres, and sowed aloe vera on two acres taken on lease at Chawdharywas village, Hisar, in 2013. Today, the trio has aloe vera farming on 62 acres.
“Hassan, who supplies aloe vera to companies such as Dabur, Patanjali and Hamdard, purchases our entire produce. We are easily earning between Rs 70,000 and Rs 80,000 per acre. In our neighbouring fields, farmers doing traditional farming hardly get returns of Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 per acre,” says Sant Lal.
Jagpal Singh Phogat ran a small-time school at Malikpur village, Jhajjar, till 2001, when he got attracted towards honeybee farming. Today, Phogat and his wife Mukesh produce 600 quintals of honey every year and sell them in different natural flavours and forms for a price ranging between Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 per kg depending on the variety.
The gross income of the family from the farming is a whopping Rs 6 crore per annum today and they have employed 30 persons on honey collection and packaging.
Surender Singh of Saharwa village, Hisar, was a PGT teacher in a government-aided school when he started farming of green chilies on one acre in 2003. Next year, he started strawberry farming on one acre. Today, he is growing strawberry on 10 acres, Lilium flowers on 6 acres and tomatoes, cucumber, biogas plant and many more diversified crops on nine more acres. He owns only four acres and the rest of 21 acres he has taken on lease. “I send a pick-up van loaded with my products to Delhi every day. I manage to earn Rs 50 lakh or more in a year,” he adds. 
There are many others like 21-year-old Shanti from Karina village, Mahendergarh, who does mushroom farming along with her studies.
Anand Gillankhera has been earning well from guava and kinnow farming at Gillankhera village in Fatehabad. Mahabir Arya from Farukhnagar, who is into amla farming, added that agriculture can also be a profitable venture if done differently.
Success Stories
Sant Lal used to run an auto garage in Hisar. He was told that aloe vera is easy to grow even on a semi-arid or arid soil and needed no pesticides or fertilisers. With no ancestral land, Sant Lal teamed up with two others and sowed aloe vera on two acres taken on lease in Hisar in 2013. Today, their aloe vera farming is spread over 62 acre, and they are earning between Rs 70,000 and Rs 80,000 per acre. 
Jagpal Singh Phogat ran a small-time school at Malikpur village, Jhajjar, till 2001, when he got attracted towards honeybee farming. Today, Phogat and his wife Mukesh produce 600 quintals of honey every year and sell them in different natural flavours. The gross income of the family from the farming is a whopping Rs 6 crore per annum.
Surender Singh of Hisar was a PGT teacher in a government-aided school when he started farming of green chilies on one acre in 2003. Next year, he started strawberry farming on one acre. Today, he is growing strawberry on 10 acres, Lilium flowers on six acres and tomatoes and many more diversified crops on nine acres.

Lucknow : Fifty-eight pilgrims returning from the Ajmer Sharif Dargah in Rajasthan were injured in a road accident on Monday in Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj district, police said.
The accident took place on the GT road when the driver of the bus carrying the pilgrims lost control and rammed onto a static truck, an official told IANS.
Eleven of the injured people were said to be in critical condition and were taken to the Tirwa medical college.
All the injured people belong to Kushinagar and Gorakhpur districts in Uttar Pradesh.