Hisar, February 12
Hundreds of farmers whose crops have been damaged by the recent spell of hailstorm in several villages of the district are making rounds of officials concerned at the local mini-secretariat with requests to grant relief to them.

A delegation of farmers from Koth Kalan village in Narnaund tehsil of the district yesterday came to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and sought relief for the crops damaged due to the hailstorm on February 9. They stated that standing crops of mustard, gram, wheat, millets and fodder had been destroyed by the hailstorm.

The farmers, whose crops remained unaffected in the hailstorm on February 7, were hit hard by the February 9 hailstorm. Farmers’ representatives told The Tribune that almost all crops standing in their fields had been damaged in the hailstorm.

They maintained that no survey had so far been conducted to assess the damage caused to crops in their village. The farmers said their case had been referred to the SDM, Hansi, for necessary action.

Meanwhile, the Congress MP from Bhiwani, Mr Kuldeep Bishnoi, has urged the state government to provide due compensation to the farmers affected by the hailstorm.

Mr Dayanand Punia, district secretary of the Akhil Bhartiya Kisan Sabha, has demanded a compensation of Rs 10,000 per acre for the farmers whose crops have been damaged in the recent hailstorm. He also sought a check on the black-marketing of urea, which was putting an additional financial burden on the farmers.

Sonepat, February 12
A large number of angry students remained away from classes and held a demonstration in front of the office of the Director-cum-Principal of the State College of Engineering at Murthal, 8 km from here, today.

They were protesting against the absence of the doctors and a pharmacist from the dispensary on the premises of the college and the failure of the Haryana Health Department to provide medical aid to the students.

According to a report, the protest was staged after Gaurav, a student of mechanical engineering (Part I), suffered an electric shock when he went to a bathroom of the hostel in the college this morning. Gaurav fell unconscious and was taken to the dispensary of the college where no doctor or pharmacist was present. Only a peon was present and he tried to provide first aid to the student, but other students did not allow him to do so. Thereafter, the angry students took Gaurav to a private hospital where he was treated.

After returning to the college they held a demonstration and shouted slogans against the college authorities.

Meanwhile, inquiries by this correspondent revealed that the Health Department had appointed Dr Shakti Singh and Dr Jyoti Sheron in the dispensary, but both of them have been on leave for the past two months. Similarly, the pharmacist appointed in the dispensary was also on leave today.

It is stated that the college authorities had brought the continuous absence of the doctors to the notice of the authorities concerned many times, but no action had been taken in this regard.

The Directorate of Health Services had also failed to make any alternative arrangements in the dispensary for providing medical aid to the college students.

Gurgaon, February 12
Incidents of crime have increased in Gurgaon city after the Assembly elections, causing alarm among the residents.

The spate in crime in the past few days called in question the effectiveness of the police. The DSP, Headquarters, Gurgaon, Mr Subey Singh, however, rationalised the incidents, saying these were of a routine nature.

Four youths today allegedly looted a purse containing Rs 10 lakh from two employees of Besteck India Ltd in DLF-II while they were returning after withdrawing money from a bank in Sector 14. The two employees were returning on a two-wheeler to their office from the bank when a Maruti Zen rammed into their vehicle. Four youths armed with countrymade guns got off from the car, snatched the money from them and decamped.

Last Tuesday, a five-year boy from Gandhinagar was allegedly abducted. The police said the culprit was a resident of the native village of the victim’s family. The whereabouts of the accused and the boy had not be yet ascertained by the police.

Four days ago, some persons took away a car of the owner of Legend Travel Services, Mr Tarun Jain, by force in the night. A person, along with 20 persons, forced Mr Jain to enter into a kind of a business agreement. When an employee of the victim objected, he was beaten up. They took away Mr Jain’s car, his mobile phone and some documents.

Three days ago, about 10 persons beat up a security guard of Flag India Ltd in Silokhara, now a part of the urban pocket of the city, at about 3 pm and left the scene not before snatching his gun and 30 baskets of ball bearings from the factory’s storage place.

The rise in crime caused uneasiness among the industrial and trading section of society. The feeling in the corporate sector was that there was often a lull in the administrative circles after the elections till the time the next government came in place. This was the time when anti-social elements raised their heads.

Chandigarh, February 12
“A legal fee of Rs 6.50 lakh to know ways to transfer a Chief Secretary and whether regular appointments can be made when the model code of conduct is in force.” Sounds incredible, but it is true.

The Chautala Government in Haryana had approached one of the top Delhi-based legal luminaries to find out ways how to transfer the Chief Secretary, Mr Sunil Ahuja, much before yesterday’s Cabinet meeting in which he was humiliated by the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala.

According to informed sources, shortly after the model code of conduct came into force, the Haryana Government sought the opinion of the former Union Law Minister, Mr Shanti Bhushan, whether it could transfer Mr Ahuja after the announcement of the Assembly elections.

The government also wanted to know if it could make regular appointments after the code of conduct had come into force.

Sources say Mr Shanti Bhushan opined that the government could transfer the Chief Secretary even when the model code of conduct had come into force. It is not known what advice he rendered on the issue of appointments. Now he has billed the Haryana Government for Rs 6.60 lakh. On each issue he has sent a bill of Rs 3.30 lakh. Though the payment has been sanctioned, it is still to be sent to the senior Supreme Court advocate.

It is learnt that while seeking Mr Shanti Bhushan’s advice, the government did not sent him the instructions issued by the Election Commission in 1993 by which it was specifically mentioned that when the election process would be on, the Chief Secretary, among others would be considered the officer of the Election Commission.

The sources say when pressure was put on Mr Ahuja to proceed on leave by the government, he wrote to the Election Commission for permission to proceed on long leave for “personal reasons”. The commission declined. It was only after this that the government changed its mind to transfer Mr Ahuja. Earlier the government wanted to post the Principal, Secretary to Chief Minister, Mr B.D. Dhalia, as the Chief Secretary.

Hisar, February 12
A local court today issued non-bailable warrants against Mr Jai Prakash, Congress MP from Hisar, in a case of dacoity. The case of dacoity at an Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) office had been registered against Mr Prakash when he was Congress MLA from the Barwala constituency.

INLD leader Surender Barwala had lodged a complaint at the Barwala police station, alleging that Mr Prakash, along with his security guard and some supporters, raided the INLD office at Barwala, assaulted them and decamped with some cash and articles.

After spending some time in the jail in connection with the case, Mr Prakash was released on bail.

The court of Judicial Magistrate Ashwani Mehta today heard the case, in which the accused were supposed to appear. However, while the security guard and four other persons named in the case appeared in the court today, Mr Prakash did not appear. His counsel pleaded before the Judge that Mr Prakash could not appear in the court as he was busy canvassing for the Congress in Bihar.

The counsel requested the Judge to exempt Mr Prakash from personal appearance in view of his responsibility as an MP and senior Congress leader. However, the Judge dismissed his plea and issued non-bailable warrants against Mr Prakash.

Yamunanagar, February 12
The investigations in the alleged Rs 50 lakh fraud, in the Kotrakhas Cooperative Society began here today. Residents had locked the society office at Katrakhas village on Tuesday. A case under Sections 406, 409 and 420 of the IPC had been registered.

On the first day of the investigations it was found that there was no account of Rs 10.67 lakh deposited by the residents of Kotrakhas village and five other villages.

The villagers had agreed to let the office open only after the Managing Director of the society had assured the villagers that an investigation would be conducted into the matter. The society office had remained closed for more than two months and had only opened again on Tuesday.

On Tuesday last, Ramesh, a resident of Aharwala village, reached the society office with his passbook. An Assistant at the office allegedly tried to tamper the passbook. Ramesh raised an alarm and the villagers locked up the office.

During an audit in August last year, a fraud was detected in the society’s accounts. The alleged fraud had taken place during May 29, 2004 and July 26, 2004. The audit team had found discrepancies in the accounts maintained by the society. The Secretary of the society, Feth Singh, an Assistant, Babli, and salesman Singh Ram, were suspended on the audit report.

Kalsora (Karnal), February 12
Two young migrant labourers died under mysterious circumstances after consuming some poisonous liquid or illicit liquor in this village on the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh border, falling under Indri subdivision of the district, last night.

The police of the Biana police post has initiated inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC. The viscera has been sent for chemical examination at the State Forensic Laboratory, Madhuban.

According to police report, Raju, 17, and Mangal, 22, both hailing from Bihar, had been working as farm labourers in the farmhouse of Jaipal of Kalsora village for the past one-and-a-half years.

On Friday morning, they went to the nearby sugar mill in Uttar Pradesh to sell sugarcane and returned late in the evening. They reportedly fetched fodder for cattle as usual. While taking out fodder from the stockpile, they found a bottle containing some whitish liquid, said Mr Vikas Arora, SP, Karnal.

Taking it for homemade liquor hidden by farmers in the stockpile of fodder, they went to the nearby fields and consumed it. When the landlord called them for the dinner, they complained to stomach ache.

“While I was preparing to take them to a local physician, they died within 15 minutes”, said the landlord in his version recorded before the inquiry officer.

The post-mortem of the bodies was conducted in the Civil Hospital at Karnal. Nothing concrete could be ascertained from it.

Ambala, February 12
On the second day of the national conference on ‘From home to world: place for intellectual Indians’ organised by the MM Institute of Management, Mullana technical sessions was organised today. The first session was chaired by Dr B.B. Goel, Professor, Public Administration, Panjab University. Dr R.K. Mittal, Chairman, Department of Commerce, Kurukshetra University co chaired the session.

Mr Jagdish Khatri, governing council member, AIMA, presented a paper on ‘Globally magic, locally tragic-need to redefine the role of intellectual Indians’. Ms Meenakashi Pant and Mr Ajay Bhardwaj from Amarpali Institute of Management, Haldwani, presented a paper on ‘Role of AICTE the intellectual managers’. Mr Harpreet Singh from Lovely Institute of Management, Jalandhar, presented his paper on ‘Indian living aboard-give back’ and Mr Sumit Kumar from TITs, Bhiwani present a paper on’ Health tourism: quest for the new horizon’.

The second technical session was chaired by Dr T.D. Tiwari, director, NICM, Gujrat University and Dr V.K. Rastogi, head, HRD Centre Delhi University co chaired the session. The third technical session was organised on ‘Business process outstanding and financial sector challenges in terms of globalisation’ which was chaired by Dr P.K. Yadav, chairman, Department of Management, RJP Rohilkhand University Barily.

Dr M.K. Sehgal, director, MM Institute of Management, Mullana, stated that the objective of this endeavor was to provide a forum to share the experience and thoughts of research scholars. Ms Ritu Kumar was the anchor person. The convener of the conference, Mr Satish Kumar said that more than 100 research papers were received. Mr Naveen Khetrpal was the organising secretary.

The chairman of MM Group of Institutions, Mr Tarsem Garg, also addressed one of the technical sessions.