paddy procurement would begin from October.- Kambo.

Chandigarh, September 11- Haryana Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Mr Karan Dev Kamboj said that CMR (Custom Milled Rice) Policy would be formulated for paddy procurement, CMR returned and for the convenience of farmers in the state. Apart from this, during this year, the process of paddy procurement would begin from October.

In this regard, Mr. Kamboj was presiding over a joint meeting of officials of all procurement agencies and Rice Millers Association today. The meeting was attended by senior officers of Hafed, Agro, Warehouse, Market Board and the department. During the meeting, the Rice Millers Association also gave suggestions for the formulation of policy.

He said that during the last year, the State Government has received 99.99 per cent CMR. For this, he congratulated the millers and said that this has increased the respect of the millers of the state and has set a good trend. Apart from one miller of Ambala, all the rice millers of the state have returned their cent per cent CMR. The last date of returning of CMR is till 30 September, 2019. Under this, 67 per cent of the rice made available to the rice millers has to be deposited with the government.

On this occasion, Additional Chief Secretary of the department Mr. S.N. Roy, Director, Mr. Pankaj Aggarwal, Managing Director, Haryana Warehousing, Mr. R. S. Dhillon, Chairman, Rice Millers Union, Mr. Jewel Singla and many senior officials were present.

Chandigarh, Sept 11 – Building up on its efforts to fasten industrial development and enhance farmers’ income in the state, the Haryana Government through its Industries and Commerce Department granted approval to support setting-up of four agro processing units with robust backward and forward linkages in the state under its recently launched Agri Business and Food Processing Policy.

The State Government will provide grant to the tune of Rs 9.70 crore to four projects having a total investment of Rs 35 crore for setting-up of farm level and processing facilities in Dairy and Horticulture sectors. These projects will result in generating employment and income enhancement opportunities for over 5000 farmers and beekeepers located in districts of Hisar, Panipat, Sonepat and Karnal.

One of these four projects is being promoted by a Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) of Hisar named ‘Shakti Vardhak Milk Producer Company Pvt. Ltd’. The FPO having over 900 farmers as shareholders will set up milk processing and fruit and vegetable sorting, grading and packaging facilities to benefit over 1800 farmers of the district.

While informing about the projects, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries and Commerce Department and Chairman of the State Level Food Processing Committee, Mr. Devender Singh said, “Farmers and industrialists are an integral part of the economic landscape of the state and enabling them with suitable support is a major focus of the Government. These projects will result in strengthening both the industrial and agricultural ecosystem of the state”.

The State Government, under its Agri Business and Food Processing Policy, is providing a slew of incentives to support setting up of backward and forward linkages, cold chain infrastructure and food processing and contemporary packaging facilities in the Agro and Food Processing Sectors, particularly for horticulture products.

Director, Industries and Commerce Department, Dr. Yash Garg said, “This is a first of its kind policy by a state that aims to provide incentives to promote investment and generate employment opportunities across the agro processing value chain”.

Chandigarh, Sept 11 – In the upcoming Assembly elections, 1.83 crore voters in Haryana will exercise their voting right. However, to increase the voting percentage, a special campaign will be launched by the Office of Haryana Chief Electoral Officer under which each polling booth in every Assembly Constituency will be covered. In this campaign, information about EVM and VVPAT machines will be given to the people through a special dedicated vehicle.

This information was given in the review meeting of preparations for the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana organized by the Election Commission of India, here today. The meeting was chaired by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner, Election Commission of India (ECI), Mr. Sandeep Saxena. Director General (Election Expenditure) of the ECI, Mr. Dilip Sharma was also present in the meeting.

During the meeting, Mr. Sandeep Saxena directed the officials to make special arrangements for the disabled voters to enable them to cast their vote at the polling station so that they do not face any problem on the day of polling. He said that efforts should be made to provide such facilities in urban areas as well as small towns.

He also directed the officers to keep a close check on the election expenditure in Vidhan Sabha. Apart from this, web casting should be carried out on more than 10 per cent of the total polling booths. He said that to increase the voting percentage, activities under the SVEEP campaign should be increased and besides, a management plan should be prepared to ensure the smooth functioning of the election process. Apart from this, the Police Department has been directed to set up police check-post in districts adjoining borders with adjoining states so that there should be no trouble. He also directed the officers to hold meetings with the officials of such states and UT’s.

In the meeting, Haryana Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. Anurag Aggarwal, said that a special campaign is being run to make female voters aware, so that they can exercise their franchise in the upcoming assembly elections. Apart from this, college students, who are 18-19 years old, are also being made aware to cast their vote. He said that if anyone has not got his or her vote made till now and they have attained the age of 18 years or above as on January 1, 2019, they should get their vote made at the earliest.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that the second special summary revision of the photo electoral roll has been done and after the process of addition and deletion of the names of voters, the total number of voters in Haryana is 1,82,98,714. The copy of this voter list has been given to all the representatives of all political parties. He said that according to the draft roll published on July 15, 2019, the number of voters in the state was 1,79,69,515. Under this special campaign, 2,69,201 names were added and 47,488 names were deleted. Thus the net addition is 2,21,713. The number of voters after the last publication is 1,82, 98,714 of which 97,30,169 are male and 84,60,820 are female, 239 are transgender voters and 1,07,486 are service voters.

It was informed in the meeting that in order to increase the percentage of female voters in districts Faridabad, Mewat, Palwal, Jind, Sirsa, Yamunanagar and Panchkula, the District Electoral Officers concerned have been directed to motivate female voters to get their votes made.

Mr. Anurag Aggarwal said that any eligible person can get their voter Id made by filling Form-6 with the concerned BLO, Election Registration Officer or Assistant Election Registration Officer. This form is also available on the Election Department website www.ceoharyana.nic.in which can be downloaded. Apart from this, votes can also be made online through www.nvsp.in. in order to get vote made, one should apply with offline or online with two passport size coloured photos, residence proof and age proof.

Additional Director General of Police and State Nodal Officer for Assembly Elections, Mr. Navdeep Singh Virk made a presentation for the Assembly elections in which he informed that 258 police check posts have been set up in the state. He informed that 38 arms have been confiscated, 40862 license arms have been deposited, 156 persons have been arrested and 120 persons have been bound. He informed that the schedule for border meeting has been made and these meetings will soon be held. He informed that 268 blocks will be set up in the areas adjoining neighboring states.

Others present in the meeting included DIG and Deputy State Police Nodal Officer, Mr. Rakesh Arya, Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. D.K. Behera, Joint Chief Electoral Officers, Dr. Inder Jeet and Mr. Apurv.

Chandigarh, September 11 – Haryana Government has issued transfer and posting orders of two HPS officers, with immediate effect.

Ramesh Kumar, DSP, Dadri and Akhil Kumar, DSP, Hisar have been posted ACP, Gurugram on vacant posts.

Chandigarh, September 11- In a major relief to the dairy farmers, Haryana Government has decided to give a waiver of Rs.1,268 crore on milk cess. This decision will help the plants in their day-to-day working capital requirement and also to buy more milk at better price, which will bring more prosperity to the farmers.

While giving this information, an official spokesman said that there is a plan to introduce a “One-time Settlement” of past dues of Milk Cess levied on milk plants in the State. The defaulter entity may be permitted to pay the pending principal amount of Milk Cess due along with simple interest calculated @ 12 per cent (from the date of default) for receiving the benefits of the scheme. It is further proposed that 50 per cent of amount due (principal and interest) should be paid by the company concerned within 60 days and the balance should be paid within six months in six equal installments, failing which, 15 per cent simple interest would be charged on the balance amount, he added.

He said that the scheme would be valid for 60 days from the date of its announcement and payment of 50 per cent of the amount due within 60 days of applying for or joining the scheme, would be construed as opting for the scheme.

He said that the milk cess was started in 2001 under sub-section 1 of section 6 of Haryana Murrah Buffalo and Other Milch Animals Breed (Preservation and Development of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development Sector) Act 2001. It is applicable only to plants having processing capacity more than 10,000 litres of milk per day and not to chilling plants etc and was meant to help the development of Murrah, Sahiwal and Hariana Breeds besides establishing Haryana Livestock Development Board (HLDB).

Presently, only 23 Milk Plants are working in Haryana, against 40 that had started or functioned at one time, as the banks refused to give working capital against the accumulated interest which is charged annually on monthly compounding basis. The Milk Plant owners have been representing that they face notices from HLDB for recovery of Milk Cess (balance Rs 69.55 crore, of which only Rs 38.05 crore is from private plants, rest is of Coop Dairy plants and NDRI) and interest thereon which comes to Rs 1,278.61 crore as on March 31, 2019, he added.