Rivals to hold public events at Ballah in Karnal on Sunday

Karnal :
With a group of residents of Ballah threatening not to allow Raj Kumar Saini, rebel BJP MP from Kurukshetra, to address a public meeting in the village on July 15, the Karnal administration is on toes.

The residents said the Akhil Bharatiya Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (ABJASS) would hold a “bhaichara” rally in the village the same day and the arrival of Saini might lead to a tense situation.

Saini and his supporters made it clear that they would go ahead with their prior schedule and hold a public meeting in the village. DSPs Rajiv Kumar and Virander Saini and the Assandh SDM tried to defuse the situation on Tuesday.
After the announcements by both sides, DC Aditya Dahiya and SP Surinder Singh Bhoria on Wednesday held separate meetings with both groups and made it clear that nobody would be allowed to break the law.

Bhoria said they held meeting with both groups and asked them not to take the law into their hands. A meeting would be held on Thursday to sort out the issue, he said.
Sarpanch Dilavar Mann said he and other residents approached the DC and SP for stopping the arrival of the MP. “With his arrival, the situation can be tense. I request the administration not to allow him to come to the village,” he said.

Nafe Singh, district ABJASS president, said the state body announced on June 7 that it would hold a “bhaichara” rally on July 15. “Some of Saini’s supporters want to spoil brotherhood in the village and are adamant on his arrival. We have requested the administration to take steps to avoid violence,” he said.

The MP said his supporters had fixed this programme around 20 days back and he would go to Ballah village as per schedule. “I will visit Munak and Golli villages the same day,” he said. Without naming any community, he said people had been creating hurdles in his programmes.

Rohtak :
A day after state Congress president Ashok Tanwar stated that he was ready to sink the differences with former Chief Minister and veteran Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, the latter has maintained that he had no differences with anybody.
Addressing a news conference here, Hooda said the Congress was ready for elections, whenever these were conducted. He reaffirmed that there was no factionalism in the party and they would put up a concerted fight against the ruling BJP.

Coming down heavily on Chief Minister Manohar Lal, Hooda challenged him to list his government’s achievements ever since its installation. He stated that the BJP regime had not been able to initiate even a single major project in the state.

The former Chief Minister reiterated that it was his party’s government that brought the metro rail network to the state and established five thermal power plants during its tenure.

He accused the BJP government of claiming “bogus” credit for implementing the Swaminathan Commission report, while the actual provisions of the report had not been adopted by the government.

Castigating the INLD on ‘jail-bharo’ drive over construction of the SYL canal, he termed it as a gimmick.

Former Rajya Sabha MP Shadi Lal Batra, Kalanaur MLA Shakuntala Khatak, former Rohtak MLA Bharat Bharat Bhushan Batra and former Rohtak Mayor Renu Dabla were also present.

Consumption, demand highest ever; farmers complain power cuts
 

Chandigarh :
With demand of electricity in agriculture sector at its peak and sultry weather conditions prevailing across the region, Haryana overdrew 24 lakh units from the national grid on Monday to meet the highest ever demand of power in the state so far.
Haryana registered the highest ever demand and maximum unrestricted demand of 10069 MW of electricity at 9 pm on Monday, PK Das, Additional Chief Secretary, Power Department, Haryana, told on Tuesday.

The maximum off peak demand of electricity was registered as 10016 MW at 2 pm on Monday.

Das further said the unrestricted consumption of 2174.40 lakh units registered on Monday was also the highest ever in the state.

The power utilities Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) had to impose power cuts of 9.62 lakh units and yet 2164.77 lakh units of power was consumed in the state on Monday.

“The demand as well as the consumption of power on Monday was the highest ever so far in the state,” Das explained.

Sources said that nearly 30 per cent of the power consumed these days is going to the agriculture sector as irrigation is needed these days for all crops – paddy, cotton, sugar cane and other kharif crops.

Farmers, however, are not satisfied and allege that they have not been getting enough power to irrigate their fields.

“This is the peak season when we need water the most for transplantation of paddy. Farmers, who have already transplanted, need water to irrigate their crop. Cotton also needs water these days. Since it has not rained for over a week now, farmers need enough power for tubewells,” said Gurjeet Singh Mann, a progressive farmer from Sirsa.

Though the power utilities are claiming that they are giving 8-hour power supply a day, the power trips occasionally leading to cuts, Mann said.

Sources said that for overdrawing of power from national grid, the states have to pay the prevalent rates of that particular time which are inversely proportional to the frequency of electricity – a frequency of 50 Hz being the most ideal and the rates being the cheapest at this frequency.

The average frequency recorded on Monday was 49.98 Hz, the maximum 50.12 Hz and the minimum frequency was 49.72 Hz.

As regards the power generation status of the state at 7 am on Tuesday, all the four units of Panipat Themal Power Plants, unit 1 and 2 of Deen Bandhu Chhotu Ram Power Plant, Yamunanagar, units 7, 8 and 9 of Adani Power Limited, unit 2 and 3 of Indira Gandhi Thermal Power Station at Jhajjar, unit 2 of Rajiv Gandhi Thermal Power Station at Khedar and unit 1 of CLP group’s power generation unit at Jhajjar are functional and generating power.

Rohtak :
Poor academic results of the local government school, “missing” veterinary doctor at the village clinic and a perennial drinking water problem weigh on the minds of villagers of Samargopalpur. Their repeated airing of grievances at various quarters has yielded nothing.

The parents of nearly all 85 children refuse to send them to the local anganwari as it has no supply of water and there seems to be no power ever. The anganwari helper, Anita, visits homes, urging parents to send the children with her. Refusing to send their wards, they question her for even coming to their houses given the lack of facilities at the school.

And, all these complaints are heaped outside one door, that of Rohtak MLA and Minister of State Manish Grover who adopted the village. Villagers claim it to be one door they have never found open. “He has not been able to address even these ‘insignificant issues’, proving that raising bigger issues is pointless,” says Sunil Parmar, a villager.

Residents also allege that whatever little happens in the village — the making of a road, a lane or such contractual works — is decided by a particular supporter of the minister who has the last word on any issue. A member of the panchayat, not wanting to be named, said the panchayat had been rendered powerless since all decisions were taken by one worker who overrules even the sarpanch.

The sarpanch’s brother, Pawan, explained, “We had issues with that worker who even threatened us not so long ago, but things have settled down now. We are working in tandem and the minister has given a lot of funds for making the pond’s retaining wall, various village lanes and other such works,” he said, adding that the minister had visited the village four times.

The villagers, however, beg to differ, maintaining that the minister has hardly visited the village. “The village has not benefited from this adoption. The first requirement is that he should be approachable. Trying to meet him is exhausting and nobody has the time to keep knocking at his door. We have started to believe that we were never adopted,” said Kanwar Pal, sitting with a group of men at the village pond, as they nod in unison.

They are pained by the government school’s poor result. “Of the 85 students, only 38 passed Class X. Let him do nothing for us but we want a secure future of our children,” says Sonu.

The veterinary clinic with its open doors has no doctor. “We have to travel to Rohtak if our cattle need any medical help as this doctor has 12 villages under him. We hardly get to see him,” Manjit Singh said.

The village women maintained that water was in short supply and they had to carry it to their homes from the field.

“I am aware of all problems because I visit the village once in two months. We will have a veterinary doctor soon, the introduction of exams will improve the academic standards and the water issue will be addressed. As far as that worker is concerned, he is my supporter but does not interfere in village work. I will go there and settle this as well,” the minister said when the villagers’ grievances were mentioned.

Chandigarh :
Haryana earmarked Rs500 crore for its much-touted Bhawantar Bharpai Yojana (BBY), a price deficiency scheme support for vegetable crops, but only 504 farmers got compensation of just Rs 12 lakh in seven months, raising serious doubts over its implementation.

The BBY, launched by the state government in January this year initially on four vegetable crops, provided that if farmers failed to get at least Rs4 per kg for their potato and tomato crops or if they got less than Rs5 per kg for their onion and cauliflower crops, the government would compensate the difference.

Sources said that though the market prices of potato, onion and cauliflower remained higher than the minimum assured price decided by the government this year, farmers had to sell tomato for Rs1 per kg or even less in April and May this year, which was less than the base price by 75 per cent or even more.

According to estimates by traders, the total tomato production in the state in 2017-18 was between 9 lakh metric tonnes and 10 lakh metric tonnes.

The sources said that had the state government compensated the price deficiency of all farmers who sold their tomato at less price, the expenditure on tomato alone could have gone up to Rs300 crore.

Before Haryana launched the BBY, Madhya Pradesh had launched the Bhawantar Bhugtan Yojana for eight crops on similar lines, but the scheme had not met the desired success in that state, said the sources.

Agriculture Minister Om Prakash Dhankar said the state government was serious about the success of the scheme and was in the process of hiring a US company for providing artificial intelligence.

He said that the company had already given a presentation on how software developed by them could detect fraud, if any, in implementation of the schemes.
Asked why only 504 farmers had come forward for merely Rs12 lakh compensation despite availability of funds, Dhankar said that the benefits of the scheme were given only to those farmers who registered themselves under it.

Arjun Singh Saini, Director General, Horticulture Department, said merely 4,500 farmers had got registered under the scheme.