Sirsa, January 22
Contesting the Ellenabad assembly byelection, it seems, was not such a costly affair.

A look at the expenditure statement (till January 17) submitted by various candidates suggest that the high-voltage campaign of the Congress and the INLD did not cost the candidates much.

Among the candidates of recognised parties, Abhey Singh Chautala spent the least (Rs 3, 30, 097) on his campaign, say sources in the election department.

Bharat Singh Beniwal, Congress candidate, spent slightly more (Rs 3, 49, 306) during this period.

Kusum Chaudhary of the Samast Bhartiya Party spent the most (Rs 4, 83, 379) on campaigning among all 15 candidates.

Raj Kumar of the Haryana Swatantra Party failed to submit his expenditure report and the election authorities have served him a show-cause notice.

The expenditure incurred by 11 Independent candidates was:

Vinod Kumar Rupawas spent Rs 5,365 on campaigning. Jaiver (Rs 25,120), Bharat Singh Mochiwali (Rs 6,940), Krishan Kumar (Rs 19,220), Rameshwar (Rs 14,095), Lilu Ram (Rs 2,920), Mange Ram (Rs 20,905), Shalender (Rs 7,018), Bharat Singh Banwala (Rs 22,950), Deepak Goyal (Rs 31,310) and Vinod Kumar Kairanwali (Rs 5,200).

The byelection was among the most hotly contested in Haryana’s political history with the ruling Congress as well as the Opposition INLD resorting to intensive campaigning.

The Congress pressed into campaigning ministers, former ministers, legislators and former legislators besides senior party functionaries even as hundreds of workers from across the state campaigned in Ellenabad for over two weeks for the party candidate. INLD’s Abhey Singh began his poll campaign much before the Congress.

It was a well-knit campaign run by former ministers, legislators and former legislators.

Hundreds of costly SUVs of rival parties crisscrossed the length and breadth of the Ellenabad assembly constituency several times during campaigning.

Besides, “langar” was run in the offices of the main parties in Ellenabad town as well as their offices in over 70 villages.

Kusum Chaudhary’s campaign remained comparatively low key with a cavalcade of four to five vehicles carrying her. her supporters, party activists as well as party president Sudesh Agarwal.

Chandigarh, January 22
The Haryana police has little reason to cheer. Already in the line of fire for delayed investigations into the Ruchika molestation case, it has received another rap on its knuckles for letting the accused in the Rohtak hooch tragedy go “almost unpunished”.

Holding it at fault for “shoddy investigations” into the November 2000 tragedy, Justice Ranjit Singh of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the Director-General of Police to probe whether the “scanty investigation” was with a motive, or was a reflection of inefficiency.

The deceased were not subjected to postmortem examination; neither the injuries nor deaths were linked to spurious liquor recovered from the accused.

As the five accused managed to get away with just two years’ imprisonment, and a fine of Rs 1 lakh each, Justice Ranjit Singh said: “What a tragedy? Hooch consumption consumed the life of six persons. Three lost light in their lives, are living in darkness around. Society is insensitive to the plight of these poor persons. Such tragedies are highlighted for a few days, then forgotten and are relegated to obscurity….

“Tragedy is further compounded when noticed that the preparators are going off the hook.

“Such a heinous crime committed for petty financial gains would go almost unpunished due to infirm and faulty investigation.

“One would feel sad to notice that in such-like cases even the investigating agencies are either seen soft-paddling the investigation or conniving in shoddy investigations, lending a helping hand to the persons accused of such serious offences.

“Though the misconduct on the part of the appellate led to serious consequences for large number of families, they will be able to get reprieve because proper evidence was marshaled.... “Normally, the investigating agency is left with some odd observation after making reference to defective investigation. That should not be the approach. Such agencies must be made accountable for the lapses, if any found.”

Nafe Singh, Naseeb Singh, Rajpal, Dharampal and Satpal had filed the appeal against the orders sentencing them to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for causing hurt by poison under Section 328 of the IPC.

Another sentence of three years and Rs 2,000 fine was handed over under Section 61 of the Excise Act.

Setting aside the conviction under Section 328 as there was no link evidence between the possession of spurious liquor and the deaths or injuries, Justice Ranjit Singh enhanced the fine to Rs 1 lakh each while reducing the imprisonment by a year.

Asking the DGP to “ensure action against persons found responsible, Justice Ranjit Singh also directed submission of a report in three months.

Panchkula, January 22
The state government has decided to extend one of its popular schemes, “Ladli”, for another five years.

More than 86,000 girls have already benefited from the scheme, launched four-and-a-half-years ago.

The scheme was aimed at investing a financial incentive of Rs 5,000 every year for the first five years on the birth of the second daughter in a family in a group insurance scheme of the Life Insurance Corporation of India.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who was here today to honour girls for their outstanding achievements in various fields on the occasion of the state-level Balika Samman Samaroh, said the Department of Women and Child Development had been asked to take steps to extend the “Ladli” scheme for another five years.

Hooda welcomed the decision of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to declare ‘Balika Saptah’ (girl child week) from January 18 to 24 every year, starting this year, to draw the attention of the people towards the proper upbringing of girls.

He honoured 360 outstanding girls, who had attained the first three positions in their respective districts in the academic field. Similarly, 14 girls were honoured for participating in international sports meets and bringing laurels to the state.

Also, three girls were honoured for their outstanding performance in art, science and yoga.

He said the state government had sanctioned additional 7,995 anganwadi centres and 260 mini-anganwadi centres.

Women and Child Development Minister Geeta Bhukkal said the state government would launch the Indira Bal Swasthya Yojna on Republic Day. Under the scheme, preventive and curative health care would be provided to all children up to 18 years of age.

Awards were given to Sonepat, Mahedragarh and Fatehabad districts, which had succeeded in improving the sex ratio in 2008.

Panipat, January 22
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs of the union government has approved three feedstock changeover projects of National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) for its plants at Panipat, Nangal and Bathinda.

Under the project, the Panipat and other two plants of the NFL will be converted from fuel-based units into gas-based plants.

According to a statement issued by the cabinet committee, it would save Rs 40 crore per unit per month in the form of reduction in the release of fertiliser subsidy after conversion of these units was completed.

It was likely to bring down the government’s subsidy bill by Rs 600 crore.

The conversion would also help the units to modernise their existing ammonia plants and achieve better energy efficiency.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 1,292.94 crore each for Panipat and Bathinda plants, while Rs 1,478.63 crore will be spent on revamping the Nangal plant.

The National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) had come up with a proposal to convert its fuel-based plants at Panipat, Nangal and Bhatinda into gas-operated units. The company had even been negotiating with GAIL India, Reliance and Indian Oil for sourcing of gas and laying of pipeline.

The NFL had recently received a report from its consultants on conversion, which had been submitted to the government following which the project was approved by the union government.

The study was conducted jointly by KBR, Lurgi and HTAs consulting firms from the US, Germany and Denmark, the specialists in conversion technology.

Sources at the NFL said finances for the projects were to be generated through internal resources and loans from financial institutions.

Currently, the cost of urea production comes to Rs 4,000 per tonnes and the company would be saving about Rs 1,000 per tonnes after the project was implemented, sources said.

With an aggregate urea production capacity of 32.31 lakh tonnes, the NFL is the largest producer of urea in the country among the public sector undertakings with a share of 17 per cent.

Besides the said project, the NFL is also planning capacity augmentation of its Vijaipur unit.

Kurukshetra, January 22
To celebrate the birth centenary of Dr Homi J Bhabha, the Department of Science and Technology, Haryana, in collaboration with Kurukshetra University, is going to organise a two-day science conference at the university here from January 23 to 24.

Stating this to mediapersons here recently, Lt-Gen (Dr) DDS Sandhu, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said the conference would be inaugurated by Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Prithvi Raj Chavan.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda would preside over the inaugural function while Dr S Banerjee, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission would deliver the keynote address. He said the theme of the conference is to popularise science stream among students.

Chandigarh, January 22
The Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam has temporarily or permanently disconnected power supply to 2,08,073 erring consumers up to December 31 during the current financial year and recovered Rs 68.32 crore from them. A spokesman said here today that these consumers had to pay Rs 113.64 crore to the nigam. It had decided to disconnect power supply to 4.45 lakh defaulters during the current fiscal.The nigam would intensify the campaign in the current quarter.

He said 53,859 disconnections had been made in the Ambala operation circle comprising Ambala and Panchkula districts; 34,718 in Yamunanagar; 32,357 in Kurukshetra; 24,037 in Panipat; 8,409 in Jhajjar; 9,252 in Karnal; 14,602 in Jind; 1,939 in Kaithal; 7,237 in Sonepat and 1,663 in Rohtak up to December 31.

Rohtak, January 22
Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda has welcomed the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure of the Union Government regarding electrification of the Rohtak-Bathinda section of the Northern Railway.

He said the government was committed to providing better infrastructure in the region so that more job opportunities could be created for the youth.

He said the electrification work on this section had been pending for long and was a major requirement to boost the commercial and industrialisation process here in view of the growing population. He said he would work for the modernisation of the Rohtak railway station and the early completion of the Rohtak-Jhajjar-Rewari rail line.

He claimed the electrification project would benefit Julana, Jind, Uchana, Narwana, Tohana and Jakhal towns.

Chandigarh, January 22
The Haryana government has asked victims of the 1984 riots, who are yet to get relief under the “rehabilitation package” approved by the Union government on January 16, 2006, to approach the Deputy Commissioner of their district before January 31.

A spokesman for the state Home Department said here today that while most of the riot-affected persons had been given grant, there were still cases of some of the claimants pending due to non-submission of the required documents or information.

He said all those whose near and dear ones died in the 1984 riots or whose uninsured property, whether residential, commercial or industrial, was damaged and the families that migrated to Haryana and were still living in the state and had not yet received relief under the Central package, should submit their claims to the Deputy Commissioner concerned or directly to the Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Home Department, by January 31 so that further action could be taken on their cases.

The claims received after February 10, 2010, would not be considered.

Karnal, January 22
Government schools in Haryana are facing an acute shortage of regular teachers with nearly 32 per cent posts of various categories in high and secondary schools lying vacant.

Of the 62,903 sanctioned posts of five main categories, 20,114 are lying vacant while the backlog of 33 per cent quota for women has also not been cleared.

According to information procured from the department, 889 posts of headmaster, 274 posts of principal, 3,420 posts of lecturer, 9,009 posts of master and 6,522 posts of C and V teacher are vacant.

Of the 42,589 regular teachers in all categories, 26,259 are men and 16,530 women, which implies that there is a backlog of 2,572 teachers to achieve the 33 per cent quota for women.

The situation is marginally better in case of C and V teachers, who exceed the quota by 827.

Nearly 5 to 10 per cent teachers retire or tender their resignations every year and as such besides filling over 20,000 vacant posts, the department would be required to start the recruitment process for filling 4,000 to 5,000 posts falling vacant during the year to ensure that the studies of students do not suffer.

Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal said she was aware of the situation. She said the process for the recruitment of teachers was under way.

Rewari, January 22
In an alleged bid to eliminate two main witnesses - Rattan Lal (35) and his nephew Ashok Kumar (30) - in a double murder case here, a car reportedly hit the motorcycle on which Rattan and Ashok were riding in Sector 4 here today. Rattan Lal was killed on the spot while Ashok Kumar sustained grievous injures.

Advocate Hari Om Sharma, counsel for the complainants, said both Rattan Lal and Ashok Kumar were to furnish their concluding evidence in the court here tomorrow in the double murder case in which Bhagwan Das, elder brother of Rattan Lal and father of Ashok Kumar, as well as his Nepali servant were shot dead, following an altercation, allegedly by his neighbour Shyam Pahalwan and his accomplices in Uttam Nagar Colony here on November 21, 2008. Pahalwan, who was arrested in the case, is still behind bars.

Alleging that it was a case of eliminating the eyewitnesses in the case, Sharma further alleged that brother of Pahalwan and three others were travelling in the Scorpio.

Ambala, January 22
District and Sessions Judge BM Bedi sentenced a man to life imprisonment for raping his minor daughter.

According to the prosecution, the victim (12) used to live with his father Babu Lal (45), who worked as a carpenter in Burio village in Mullana constituency.

The victim’s mother had left her husband and settled somewhere else. Later, Babu Lal brought two women, Phulla Devi and Luxmi Devi, but they also left him.

The victim told the court that on July 4, 2009, her father, who was drunk, raped her and when she resisted, he slapped and threatened her. After four days, he again raped her. On July 8, Nirmala, an anganwari worker, came there to meet the owner of her house.

The victim narrated the entire story to her, following which Nirmala informed the husband of the village sarpanch. The police arrested Babu Lal on July 10. The case was sent to Sessions Court on August 22 and the conviction was pronounced yesterday.

Yamunanagar, January 22
Data pertaining to the registration of vehicles and licence holders will be available online from next month. Under a Central project, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) had been entrusted with the job and is hopeful of finishing the work by the end of this month.

“Earlier, it would take a lot of time to trace vehicles involved in accidents or other crimes. Once the data of all vehicles and owners is available online, it will not take much time for the police to zero in on criminals,” Technical Director and District Informatics Officer Ramesh Gupta said.

Besides, online data would help people renew their licences easily, he added.