Chandigarh :
BJP’s firebrand Health Minister Anil Vij was in the firing line of the Opposition Congress and INLD for “misleading” the Haryana Assembly during a calling attention motion on the second day of the ongoing monsoon session.

The demand for apology from the minister and privilege motion against him were raised by the Congress and INLD legislators after Vij had replied to the motion moved by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Kiran Choudhry and others. The Opposition alleged the minister had given a “factually incorrect” answer warranting an apology or privilege motion against him.

In her motion, Choudhry had alleged that thousands of girl students of ANM/GNM diploma courses were moving from pillar to post as their examinations were not being conducted since 2014.

Vij took strong exception to Choudhry’s allegations claiming that during the Congress’ 10-year regime, a majority of 158 nursing colleges were given recognition by adopting “corrupt means” and flouting rules. He alleged that during its tenure, the Congress had constituted the Haryana Nurses Registration Council which adopted the “outdated” Punjab Nurses Registration Act, 1932.

This evoked strong reaction from Congress members, including Choudhry, Kuldeep Sharma and Geeta Bhukkal, who wanted to know what action had been taken against the persons who facilitated the recognition of nursing colleges through “corrupt means”.

Amid charges and counter-charges between Vij and Congress members, Sharma demanded a privilege motion against the minister for “telling a lie” in the House about “adopting corrupt means and flouting rules”.

Leader of Opposition Abhay Chautala also demanded action against the persons who were instrumental in getting recognition for the nursing colleges by flouting norms. Later, Vij entered into a verbal duel with Chautala with both using unparliamentary language at each other.

Earlier, Vij had claimed that examinations were being held regularly since November 2014. As many as 7,078 students will be appearing for the examination of these diploma courses for academic session 2015-16 (supplementary) and 2016-17 (main) in October 2018. The results will be declared by December.

Besides, Vij claimed that the Khattar government had enacted the Haryana Nurses and Nurses Mid Wives Act 2017 which had replaced the then Haryana Nurses Registration Council.

Privilege motion against Vij sought

Amid charges and counter-charges between Anil Vij and Congress members, Kuldeep Sharma demanded a privilege motion against the minister for “telling a lie” in the House about “adopting corrupt means and flouting rules”.

Two Bills passed 

• The Haryana Vidhan Sabha passed two Bills on Monday. These included YMCA University of Science and Technology, Faridabad (Amendment) Bill, 2018 and the Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University (Amendment) Bill, 2018. 
• However, the Haryana Pond and Waste Water Management Authority Bill, 2018, was deferred to give more time to members to prepare for discussion over the Bill. 
• The YMCA Bills has been passed to change the name of YMCA University to JC Bose University of Science and Technology, YMCA, Faridabad. 
• Similarly, the Haryana Vishwakarma Skill University (Amendment) Bill, 2018 has been passed to change the name of the university to Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Haryana.

Pehowa :
Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Sunday said he would not be cowed down by a case registered against him allegedly at the behest of the BJP government.

Rolling out the sixth edition of his “Jan Kranti Yatra” from the Sikh-dominated Assembly segment of Pehowa, Hooda alleged he was being implicated in a frivolous case.

This was his first public address after an FIR was registered against him and Robert Vadra, the son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in connection with Gurugram land deals.

“In the previous phases of the yatra, I sensed a popular public mood against the BJP. The state government is upset over the thumping response the Congress is getting. So, the BJP is implicating me. But I am not worried,” Hooda said.

At a well-attended public meeting organised by Hooda loyalist and former Finance Minister HS Chatha, the former Chief Minister said people had made their mind to oust the BJP from power in the next year’s Assembly elections.

He alleged the BJP had failed to keep its pre-poll promises, including implementation of the Swaminathan Commission report and disbursal of unemployment allowance.

“If voted to power, the Congress will waive loans of farmers and implement Swaminathan Commission’s key recommendation to fix minimum support price (MSP) for farm produce based on a comprehensive measure of cultivation costs that includes the imputed cost of capital and the rent on the land,” he said.

Hooda added the Congress would fix pay scales of government employees higher than their Punjab counterparts.

Samalkha :
Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala has said the poor would not pardon the Modi government as it is being run like a profiteering company.

“The common man is being fleeced, while government coffers are getting filled,” he said at a “Badlaav” rally in Samalkha on Sunday.

State Congress general secretary Sanjay Chhokkar organised the rally.

Surjewala said Rs11 lakh crore loot in fuel prices and Rs12 lakh crore loot in the LPG had punctured a hole in the budget of the common man.

“On May 16, 2014, when the Congress demitted power, the international crude oil prices were as high as $108 per barrel. Now, the price is $68. In the past four-and-a-half years, there has been an increase of Rs18.70 per litre in the price of petrol and Rs10.74 in the price of diesel,” he said.

He accused the BJP of betraying people by not honouring its pre-poll promises of providing 50 per cent profit on farm produce, 2 crore jobs to youths and bringing back Rs80 lakh crore in black money.

The Kaithal MLA said the BJP government could be defined in four words — “chintan, manthan, bhojan and aayojan”.

If the Congress was voted to power in Haryana, Surjewala said, its government would build a sugar mill and an Industrial Model Township (IMT) in Samalkha, and ensure 24-hour power supply.

Multi-crore racket busted by Telangana’s Cyberabad police

Hisar :
The Fatehabad police have registered two criminal cases against a Hisar-based firm, Future Maker Life Care Private Limited, in a chit fund scam. The economic offences wing of Telangana’s Cyberabad police had busted the racket being run by the firm.

The Telangana police had raided the firm’s head office in Hisar and the firm owner’s house in Sishwal village on Saturday and reportedly seized cash. Sources said the economic offences wing of the Cyberabad police had arrested the firm’s owner Radhey Shyam from Gurgaon on Saturday. The firm also had corporate offices in Gurgaon and Nepal, the sources said, adding that the firm, which runs on network-marketing model, had grown to the tune of about Rs 2,000 crore in three years.

The city police registered the fraud case on the complaint of advocate Subhash Chander Jangu against the firm’s CMD Radhey Shyam and three accomplices — Satbir Singh, Vinod Kumar and his namesake Vinod Kumar. The Sadar police have also lodged a similar case on the complaint of a BJP leader, Anil Sihag, who was the secretary of the CM window’s eminent citizen cell in the district.

Fatehabad SP Deepak Saharan said they had started investigation into the two cases. “A special investigation team (SIT) would be set up to investigate into the matter after discussion with the SHOs of the police stations in the district,” he said, while refusing to speculate on the volume of the scam.

A resident of Bahbalpur village said a group of three youths got in touch with the firm and minted easy money.

“These youths have fled the village after duping some co-villagers in the name of similar chain-marketing firm. They came back to the village two years ago, promising a huge return in investment. They have constructed big houses and own SUVs bought off people’s money”, said a man whose nephew had invested Rs 1 lakh in the firm four days ago.

In Baddo Patti village, people were cheated of around Rs 1 crore.

A Bhiwani-based whistleblower tried to take the lid off the multi-crore fraud about a month ago. He had lodged complaints about the activities of the firm to the Chief Minister office, the Union Finance Minister office, besides the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police of Bhiwani on August 10.

He emailed the complaints to these authorities about 3-4 times and followed them up with the phone calls to the offices. In the emails, which have been accessed by The Tribune), the whistleblower opted to withheld him name but assured of his availability whenever the authorities wanted his presence.

Gurugram :
It has been 20 days since Maruti Suzuki sought land for a third facility in Gurugram, but the Haryana Government is yet to decide between land allotment to the auto major at fair price or its e-auction to developers.

While all, including the government, Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and Maruti, continue to stay mum, sources claim that dealing officials are yet to reach a consensus over the issue.

A section of officials favour allotment of 700 acres at ‘fair price’ at Rs 2 crore per acre to the auto major, but the others have been opposing it, insisting on an auction of this land to get better price.

Apparently well aware of this “dissent” in the department, the auto major in its proposal dated August 18 (a copy of which is with The Tribune) says that CM Manohar Lal Khattar had “mentioned” that there is a proposal to auction this land to developers who would then sell the land to the actual users.

“Maruti Suzuki is not a developer and perhaps won’t be eligible to bid as we are not in the business of developing and selling land. Acquiring any other land would be time-consuming and would prolong inconvenience to the general public. Thus in their interest, selling of this land to Maruti at fair price be considered,” reads the proposal sent by Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director of Maruti Suzuki.

According to sources, the HSIIDC was in talks with a Chinese major till last year to develop a Chinese industrial township in PPP mode at Rs 1.6 crore per acre. However, the deal never materialised.

Though the department kept on publicising its plans to go for joint development under PPP at the IMT site, not many players showed interest. Then, Maruti moved this proposal citing issues at the Gurugram facility.

The proposal reads: “When we came here in 1981, the site had no residential colonies but just agricultural land. Today, a great deal of residential development has taken place around the manufacturing facility at Gurgaon. As a result, the local administration has been asking us to curtail production.

“Keeping in mind the people’s welfare and the administration’s request, we have no issues in shifting the facility. But we have two considerations. The new site should be approachable to our 25,000 workers in addition to ensuring that our manufacturing is not hit during the shifting. Hence, we need a site close to the current facility and find IMT Sohna-Mewat as apt,” states the proposal.

A senior official said, “We cannot give this land at a throwaway price when any realtor will happily pay almost double. Hasty fair price allotment will mean loss. We don’t know why some officials are batting for this deal of loss. Maruti is a big company and it should buy land at auction price.”

Meanwhile, another official said, “We acquired this land in 2010 and started plotting only by 2015. Till date, we have not been able to get any key players in the auction. We were ready to get a Chinese realtor at a much lower price, but are opposing an auto major that can change the face of Sohna. If Maruti buys 700 acres, it will not just lead to development of Sohna, but also appreciate the value of other HSIIDC properties.”

A Cabinet Minister said, “The country is poll-bound and the auto major is under immense pressure to make investments in other states. We had been keeping this proposal hushed up to ensure Maruti stays in Haryana and we got more development. But now, with the corporation putting things in public, we need to act fast.”

Fair price or e-auction? 

A section of officials favour allotment of 700 acres at ‘fair price’ at Rs 2 crore per acre to the auto major, but the others have been opposing it, insisting on an auction of this land to get better price.