Panipat, July 16
Turning down the divorce proposal put up by the Barah Khap panchayat to end the marriage of Ravinder Gehlout and Shilpa, a khap panchayat held at girl’s native village Siwah today stated that they would not let anybody destroy the girl’s life.

A delegation of the Barah Khap today arrived at Siwah to get the consent of Shilpa’s parents for a mutual divorce. However, after prolonged discussions, the proposal was turned down by the girl’s side.

Today’s khap was organised at the house of Labh Singh Kadyan. Arguing over the issue raised by the khap from Ravinder’s village, locals stated that the boy’s family knew that the girl belonged to the Kadyan gotra and they should have first sought permission from their village before marrying their son with Shilpa.

They stated that the girl was not at fault therefore why should the girl become a victim. They maintained that once divorced, it would become very difficult for the girl to spend the rest of her life unmarried or get remarried.

They said either the boy’s family should convince their village to accept the Kadyan girl as their daughter-in-law or they should leave the village. However, there was no point of giving divorce to the girl after months of marriage, maintained the girl’s side.

Meanwhile, a member of the delegation from Ravinder’s village stated that the boy’s family had kept them in the dark and told them that they had managed to persuade the girl’s family for a mutual divorce, following which they had come here.

It was later decided that a final decision in this regard would be taken at the next khap panchayat, which would be held at Beri village in Rohtak district.

According to a report from Jhajjar, the Kadyan Barha khap panchayat delivered yet another verdict ordering the boy’s family to leave the village by Sunday.

The khap from the boy’s village had been maintaining that the marriage of Ravinder and Shilpa was against social norms. It had even issued a notice to the boy’s family to dispose of their property in the village and leave within 72 hours if the marriage was not dissolved.

Ravinder’s father Rohtash, son of Risal Singh, along with other members of the family had reportedly sought police protection and legal action against 18 residents of their village and some members of the khap panchayat committee following the khap verdict.

Sirsa, July 16
The absence of Sushil Indora, INLD MLA from Ellenabad, from workers’ meetings addressed by party chief Om Prakash Chautala in his constituency today as well as on Tuesday has given rise to speculation about his political moves.

While Indora maintains he was not informed about the meetings, party sources in Sirsa rejected his claim.

Sushil Indora, two-time MP from the Sirsa constituency and at present representing the Ellenabad assembly seat, has not been enjoying the best of relations with the party leadership after the parliamentary elections.

Indora was keen on contesting the elections from the Sirsa parliamentary seat but the party leadership decided to field Dabwali MLA Sita Ram instead.

Though Indora was seen campaigning for INLD candidates during the parliamentary elections, he has been keeping a distance from party leaders after the poll.

Party supremo Chautala, who was in the district for two days, addressed party workers at Kalanwali, Chopta (Ellenabad) and Sirsa on Tuesday and at Ellenabad, Dabwali and Rania today.

Though Indora’s Ellenabad assembly constituency was visited by Chautala on both days, the INLD MLA was not present at the meetings.

Ellenabad, which was earlier a reserved constituency, has become a general seat after delimitation and is among one of the constituencies from where party supremo Chautala or a member of his family is expected to contest.

Indora said, when contacted by The Tribune, that he was not aware of the workers’ meetings.

“ I am in Gurgaon and have not received any communication from the district or halqa party unit regarding today’s and yesterday’s meetings,” Indora maintained.

District INLD chief Padam Jain, however, contradicted Indora’s claims and said he was duly informed by the party office about the meetings.

“ When the party’s national president visits a constituency and the party’s press releases are being published in newspapers, the local MLA of the party becomes a host and does not need to be invited,” Jain added. He said rather he and other office-bearers of the district unit expected Indora to invite them to the meetings.

Faridabad, July 16
Former Minister Sampat Singh,who recently quit the INLD, said here today that he broke his association with the party as it had lost its way and was workng contrary to the ideology of the late Devi Lal.

Sampat Singh,who was here to mobilise support for a workers' meeting convened by him in Hisar on July 18, said he was constrained to quit the INLD following the behaviour of party supremo and former Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. He alleged that Chautala supported patron of the HJC(BL) and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal in the Hisar constituency in the last Lok Sabha elections.

He alleged there was a deal between Chautala and Bhajan Lal. Chautala supported Bhajan Lal in Hisar in exchange for the HJC(BL) leader's support to Ajay Chautala in Bhiwani. Chautala acted against the larger interest of the INLD to brighten the electoral chances of his son.This had caused ill-will and distrust among INLD workers and his supporters against Chautala.The workers had cautioned him to either break the association with Chautala and the INLD or they would break their association with him.

He said he was a follower of Devi Lal and was impressed by his ideology. His association with the INLD leaders would continue at the social level. Politically,however, his path was now different. He emphasised that the INLD was working contrary to the ideology of Devi Lal,who was pro-poor and peasants.

At the meeting of his supporters who were with him on July 18, Sampat Singh will decide his future course of action,including whether to join a political party. The issue would be decided by the workers,he added.

In response to a question on his possibility of joining the Congress,he said Devi Lal also once supported the Congress. He, however, remained non-committal on the issue of his joining any party.

Rohtak, July 16
Rohtak district has emerged at top in the state in the matter of implementing the 20-Point Programme in the state during the period of 2008-09. An amount of over Rs 3 crore was spent on various schemes covered under the project.

According to details available, the authorities provided a help of over Rs 2.80 crore for setting up of the self-help groups and generating self-employment through such a development. The department concerned extended a financial help of Rs 35,000 to each of the applicant for construction of houses for the poor under the ‘Indira Gandhi Awaas Yojna’, the scheme that provides support to BPL families to have their own accommodation in the rural areas.

Water supply in 33 villages in the district was improved considerably where the problem of inadequate supply of drinking water had been a prominent issue. The office of the DRDA also took up the schemes aimed at improving the standard of life of the Scheduled Castes and helped 5,329 families under various heads. This achievement had exceeded the target by almost 31 per cent, claimed Deputy Commissioner PC Meena.

Construction, maintenance and repair of about 66-km-long roads in the rural parts, strengthening the existing Anganwadi network and taking up the plantation programme in an area of about 387 hectares had been the other main achievements in this category.

He said the administration would try to ensure to complete other major projects and ongoing development works in both rural and urban areas on time.

Kaithal, July 16
A statewide survey will be conducted to identify differently abled persons in the state so that they can be provided benefit under state government schemes.

The survey will be conducted between July 23 and August 12 and lists of eligible persons will be prepared and those identified will be provided benefit of welfare schemes launched by the government.

This was stated by ADC Sumedha Kataria while addressing officials of the departments concerned at a meeting here today.

The ADC said such persons should be identified in the survey irrespective of the percentage of their physical inability and no one coming under this category should be deprived. She said the staff conducting the survey would be imparted necessary training and provided proper guidelines.

Kataria further said to make the survey effective, the BDPOs concerned had been directed to obtain a certificate from the village sarpanch that the names of all eligible persons had been included in the lists prepared by the survey teams, respectively.

The job of survey in Kaithal, Kalayat, Pundri and Cheeka towns had been entrusted to the secretary of respective municipal council/committees, the ADC added.

Kurukshetra, July 16
The Sixth Pay Commission recommendations for university and college teachers in the state are likely to be implemented soon.

An assurance to this effect was given by MS Chopra, OSD to the Chief Minister, to a HFUCTO delegation. The delegation, led by president NS Kaushal, called on Chopra at his residence in Chandigarh yesterday and spoke about the inordinate delay in the implementation of the revised pay scales for university and college teachers in the state.

In a statement released to mediapersons here today, Kaushal said Chopra assured the delegation that “the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission for university and colleges teachers will be implemented soon”.

Kaushal said the delegation also met Higher Education Commissioner, Haryana, Saroj Siwach regarding the delay in releasing 40 per cent arrears as interim relief to teachers of government-aided colleges. Siwach assured the delegation that the arrears would be released within a week.

Kurukshetra, July 16
Eminent educationist Prof DR Vij interacted and infused participants with the concept of self-growth of teachers, while presenting an orientation programme at the Academic Staff College on University campus here yesterday.

Vij explained the growth of teachers in three dimensions by being a better professional, practitioner and a person. He said, “A teacher should keep interest of learner alive by preparing himself before every class and should teach with passion.”

The octogenarian educationist has won many awards and honours like prestigious Balraj Sahni National Award in 1992 for his distinguished services in the field of education. The participants interacted with him actively and thanked him for sharing his experiences and teachings.

Earlier, during first session, Prof. Bhagwan Singh of the Department of Geophysics, Kurukshetra University, threw light on the “Indian Space Programme: Present Development and further Scenario”.

Singh spoke on the relevance of developing the space research programme to enhance the resources, deploy them usefully and calamity control. India had placed itself among the top five nations with a definite well-developed space programme for development and peace, he added.

Sirsa, July 16
Prisoners in the district jail here will now get clean and hygienic drinking water.

The jail authorities have installed a reverse osmosis (RO) water purifying system for the jail inmates.

JS Sethi, superintendent of the district jail, Sirsa, claimed that this jail out of the 19 jails in Haryana was the first to have installed the RO water purifier for inmates.

“The system installed at a cost of Rs 55,000 will purify 100 litres of water in an hour and will be sufficient to quench the thirst of 586 prisoners and undertrials lodged in the jail,” said Sethi.

The water purifier was badly needed in the district jail as inmates had been falling ill due to contaminated water. Recently, a number of jail inmates had taken ill due to contaminated water.

Sethi said the jail authorities had brought the matter to the notice of Industries Minister Lachhman Dass Arora, who is also the local MLA, during his recent visit to the jail and requested him to provide a water purifier, a refrigerator and an ambulance for the jail.

The minister accepted all demands and released the grants. “We have already received the water purifier and the refrigerator. We are expecting the ambulance soon,” Sethi added.

He claimed that the district jail, Sirsa, became the first to start video conferencing facilities on April 20, when it started production of undertrials in courts through video conferencing.

Jhajjar, July 16
Nearly eight months after a no-confidence motion was passed against the then chairperson, Kamla Jangra, in November 2008, the Jhajjar Municipal Committee got its new chief today with Kalawati Gujjar winning the election with a comfortable margin at a meeting held here.

Kalawati, a councillor from ward 11, defeated her rival candidate Kamla Jangra by four votes. Subdivisional Magistrate Satyender Duhan chaired the meeting in which 17 councillors, besides local Congress MLA Hari Ram Balmiki, participated. Ten councillors and the MLA exercised their franchise in favour of Kalawati while Kamla Jangra got only seven votes.

The district administration had made adequate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the election. “The meeting was videographed and all legal formalities have been fulfilled in order to check any possibility of ‘misdeed’ during the election process,” said Satyender Duhan while talking to The Tribune, adding that the date of election had been fixed earlier and the ballot papers were also duly sealed after counting.

Rewari, July 16
Residents of Bawal town as well as nearly 70 surrounding villages have been facing hardships owing to the disruption of electricity supply to their areas. The power supply to the villages was disrupted after a 132 kV tower of the Bawal substation at Atlas Chowk on the NH-8 was reportedly damaged by a tractor-trailer on Tuesday night.

To add to their woes, water supply too has become inoperative in most of these villages.

The Kasaula police has registered a case of rash driving, negligent act of endangering the safety of others and mischief causing damage on a complaint filed by a senior electricity official, Sanjiv Yadav.

While the damaged tower is being repaired expeditiously, Deputy Commissioner TL Satya Prakash has made arrangements for supply of drinking water through tankers in the affected villages.

Simultaneously, to provide some immediate relief to residents, electricity was being supplied to them provisionally through the 132 kV transformer of the HSIIDC, Bawal, as well as the Bharawas Feeder. The damaged tower is expected to be in operation by tomorrow.