Khattar slams power theft at event run on stolen electricity
While chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar was advising people to refrain from stealing electricity at Mokhra village in Rohtak on Saturday, ironically the event was allegedly being run partially on stolen power coming from a line clamped onto a nearby transformer.
While the officials first denied the allegations, they later put the entire blame of the power theft on the contractor who had arranged for the tent for the event after the shocking visuals of power theft surfaced on social media.
Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (UHBVN) executive engineer (XEN) Maninder Singh said they had arranged for generators for the programme that were being used to run coolers and air conditioners on the stage.
The XEN claimed the illegal line was used by the labourers of the contractor.
“We conducted an investigation after watching the visuals and found that the line clamped onto the transformer was set up by the workers of Neel Kamal tenthouse which was given contract to arrange for the programme. The workers had set the illegal connection to run their coolers and pedestal fans besides the stage,” he said.
He also added that the line illegally used was anyway not sufficient to provide power to the stage and equipment.
The XEN said they had registered a case against the contractor and imposed a fine of ₹40,000 on him.
Meanwhile, the event turned out to be a farce as the chief minister spent around 20 minutes during his speech in advising villagers to pay regular bills and refrain from stealing electricity, which is a common practice in rural Haryana.
The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) is all set to examine whether the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), gave jobs meant for tribals whose land was acquired for setting up the plant, to those who were ineligible.
Following a complaint from 163 displaced people, who were assured jobs as part of the rehabilitation policy of the government, the NCST has summoned the chief secretary of Odisha, the secretary of the ministry of steel and the senior management of the RSP. A review meeting, to be chaired by the new chairperson Nand Kumar Sai, will be held in the Capital on May 16.
The issue has been simmering in the state which goes to polls in 2019. It is likely to be drummed up by the BJP, which is hopeful of expanding its footprint in the coastal state.
In 2016, it came to the NCST’s notice (based on complaints) that the RSP had provided incorrect information about giving jobs to those whose lands had been acquired; and given employment to individuals who did not meet the hiring conditions.
According to sources in the tribal affairs ministry, under which NCST is a statutory body, the former chairman Rameshwar Oraon, held a hearing in November 2016, and in a scathing observation said either the RSP had not been honest in giving details or there were irregularities in employment.
“Authorities at RSP informed the Odisha government that employment had been offered to 6,000 displaced people. But when the list was checked, only 3,000 were found to have been employed. Among them, many had with no link to the displaced families,” a source said.
It came to the NCST’s notice that the company also failed to verify the land records of about 2,211 individuals who had claimed the jobs, claiming displacement.
In 1995, while hearing the case, the Supreme Court had identified a list of 1,098 families who had to be rehabilitated; it was mentioned that the number of people on the list would not be increased. Medical experts from Abu Dhabi-based VPS Healthcare are looking for a chartered aircraft to take Egyptian Eman Ahmed — formerly the world’s heaviest woman at 504kg — from Mumbai to Abu Dhabi for rehabilitation