Hisar, May 27
The Haryana Congress is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea on the issue of khap pcnchayats. By adopting an unflinching stand against kangaroo courts, it has taken a legalistic and moral stand. But, politically it means it is treading a very dangerous path.

Keeping the legal, social and moral justifications for such a stance aside, the fact remains that khaps are exclusive to those parts of Haryana where, at present, the Congress and Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda have the maximum support.

The khap panchayats are active in the Deswali belt of the state, which mainly comprises Rohtak, Jhajjar and Sonipat districts. Besides, the kangaroo courts have become active in parts of Jind, Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Karnal too. The Bagri belt of Hisar, Fatehabad, and Sirsa districts do not any khap panchayat.

The potential of the khaps to spoil the party for the Congress can be gauged from the fact that these medieval institutions are the strongest in the area of influence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. This is also the area that gave the Congress 17 out of 18 Assembly seats in the last Vidhan Sabha polls. If the gulf between the khaps and the Congress widens any further, it could mean serious political trouble for the party in the months to come.

Keeping the khap issue aside, the residents of this very area are the staunchest supporters of the demand for an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act to ban intra-gotra marriages. This further compounds the dilemma facing the Congress. With factions of the Arya Samaj jumping on to the bandwagon also, the Congress finds itself in an unenviable position as the old Rohtak district has always been in the forefront of the Arya Samaj movement.

Interestingly, khaps in other areas of the state like Kaithal and Kurukshetra are a very recent phenomenon. But these institutions have been very active for several decades in the old Rohtak district, which originally also comprised Jhajjar and Sonipat districts. The revival of khaps in other areas is the direct outcome of indirect support to khaps by the successive governments over the years.

This in effect means that khaps will be prepared for a do or die battle in this area as the rest of the districts will look up to khaps in the old Rohtak district to put up a staunch struggle on their behalf.

Even though the Congress as a whole is opposing khaps at present, factions opposed to Hooda are obviously happy over the developments. So are the opposition parties that have been quick to support the khaps. Both the anti-Hooda factions in the Congress and the opposition parties are hoping the khaps will achieve for them what they could not achieve themselves through the ballot.

Sirsa, May 27
Unlike most politicians of the state, who have been extending their support to khap panchayats on their demand of amendments in the Hindu Marriage Act to ban marriages in the same gotra and same village, a majority of women academics feel that this is a non-issue, raised only to get votes of a community.

“This is very unfortunate that we are discussing such medieval issues in the 21st century. Such issues have no place in today’s world,” said Dr Reicha Tanwar, professor and director of Women Studies and Research Centre, Kurukshetra University.

“Our constitution and the legal system provide an individual right to marry the person of his or her choice, except from the immediate family members. However, unconstitutional bodies, like the khap panchayats, sarva panchayats and maha panchayats consider it their birthright to interfere in the affairs of others,” Reicha said.

She said relevancy of certain things was based on times. What was relevant 100 years ago, may not necessary be pertinent today.

She added that earlier, people of the same gotra lived in a village for generations and hence the objection was relevant, but unfortunately, some people were in the habit of dragging the traditional baggage for ages. Dr Rajeshwari, an associate professor in the Geography Department of Kurukshetra University, who writes columns on social issues, stated that marriages within the gotra were not at all an issue in the state.

“As far as arranged marriages are concerned, no families in the state go for the same gotra marriages. However, if some individuals marry within the gotra, as an exception, it is their human right and no one has any right to interfere in this,” she said.

On the issue of marriages within the villages, Rajeshwari said villages in the state had changed much with the passage of times. Several big villages of the state had multi-gotra population and there are several instances of marrying within the village.

She said there was no social problem in the state on these issues, which were being raised just for political motives, adding that patriarchal system of the society, too, was responsible behind the raising of such issues.

Dr Jagmati Sangwan, director of Women Studies Centre, Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak, and a crusader on women issue, said a non-issue had been raised with specific motives by people with vested interests in this.

“The mass base of the khap panchayats have already eroded and they want to regain it by mobilising people on emotive issues like these, so that their activities, otherwise illegal, can be legitimised,” said Jagmati, who is a former national volleyball player and president of the Haryana unit of All-India Democratic Women Association. Dr Shamim Sharma, principal of Mata Harki Devi College for Women, Odhan (Sirsa), who has authored a book “Aajanmi beti ki chithi” on women issues, said it was unfortunate that some people did not change their outlook with the passage of time.

“There was a time when small villages existed, where 10 to 15 clans lived together. But now things have changed and villages have become bigger with scores of gotra living in the same village,” Shamim said.

Chandigarh, May 27
The Bhiwani administration has launched a unique awareness programme to make people realise the importance of saving water by providing them free drinking water through tankers this summer.

To meet the increased demand for water, the administration has launched a drive to end woes of people due to drinking water scarcity and pressed into service 75 water tankers. Simultaneously, the season when people facing water scarcity, is also being utilised to make people aware of judicious use of water and to stop its wastage.

The service has been started through the District Red Cross Society. Workers of the society are visiting households and besides supplying water, they are giving tips to residents on saving water.

The drive was launched on May 20 and all wards of the city have been covered. Social workers of areas where there is acute water scarcity, could visit Red Cross Bhawan to get water tanker. The phone number 01664-240639 can also be contacted for this purpose. The water tanker is being provided for drinking water only. This service will remain available during the summer season and people can donate for this pious work. 

Jhajjar, May 27
First five months of the year have turned out to be successful for the Rohtak Range Police as it has managed to nab 22 most wanted criminals of Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat and Karnal districts, besides busting 33 gangs involved in robbery, loot, burglary, chain snatching and vehicle theft.

The most wanted criminals, who had become a headache for the police, are accused in heinous crime of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, abduction, robbery, loot etc, with most of them carrying a cash reward as well.

In a press released issued here, V. Kamaraja, Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the Rohtak Range Police, said a special drive was launched in all five districts, Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonepat, Panipat and Karnal district, of the range in the beginning of the year to put most wanted criminals behind the bars, besides unearthing various gangs active in the range.

The IGP informed 13 most wanted criminals had been arrested from Rohtak, five from Jhajjar, three from Sonepat and one from Karnal district. These included Sher Singh of Bahadurgarh (Jhajjar); Sunil, alias Leela, of Sardana village; Ramesh of Janta Colony, Rohtak; Manjeet of Amrit Colony, Rohtak; Deepak Balhara of Bahu Akbarpur village; Satyawan, alias Baaka, of Beri (Jhajjar); Sunder, alias Kala, of Ismaila village; Dharamveer, alias Malkhan, of Chuliyana village; Amit, alias Churi, of Lakriya village; Sandeep of Kharawar village; Hari Rishi of Bihar; Sandeep Dahiya of Tilak Nagar, Rohtak; Rajesh of Indira Colony, Rohtak; Sandeep Dahiya of Silana village (Jhajjar); Sandeep of Chamariya village; Dharamveer of Bhali Anandpur village; Hansraj of Kilyana village; Satish, alias Kala, of Kansola village; Raju of Bhavad village (Sonepat); Pawan, alias Haakla, of Madina village (Rohtak); and Karampal of Aahulana village, he added.

“We have achieved success in nabbing the most wanted criminals as expected but it has been possible due to the hard work done by our officials who also arrested 389 bail jumpers, 39 proclaimed offenders (POs) and four parole jumpers during the past five months,” said Kamaraja, adding that out of 389 bail jumpers, 120 were apprehended from Karnal, 92 from Jhajjar, 77 from Panipat, 51 from Rohtak and 49 were nabbed from Panipat district.

The IGP maintained that the police had been making all efforts to curb crime rate by nailing anti-social elements having criminal tendencies. Kamaraja has called upon the people to come forward to help the police in preventing crime by giving vital information about criminals and any possible crime so that the police could take appropriate action in time. He also assured that name of the informer would be kept secrete.

Sonepat, May 27
The state wrestlers have again proved their mettle as 11 wrestlers comprising five boys and six girls from the state found their place in the Indian Wrestling Squad. They will participate in the Asian Junior Wrestling Championship to be held at Huangshan in China from June 10 to 13.

Haryana Wrestling Federation’s general secretary Raj Kumar Hooda stated that the selection process was completed in Patiala and Pune training camps on May 25 and 26, adding that the selected wrestlers were still undergoing training in their respective coaching camps.

He said out of the five boys, Deepak in 66 kg, Anil in 84 kg and Rakesh in 124 kg in the Greeco Roman style are from Rohtak and Jaideep in 50 kg and Somvir in 84 kg in the free style category are from Sonepat.

He further said the girls included Sumesh in 48 kg, Priyanka in 51 kg, Reetu in 55 kg, Sakshi in 58 kg, Sonia in 63 kg and Nikki in 72 kg in the free style 
category.

Hooda said the best wrestlers had been selected, adding that the juniors were inspired by the performance of their seniors in the recently concluded Asian Senior Wrestling Championship, where they bagged seven medals, including two gold.

Haryana Olympic Association and Haryana Wrestling Federation’s president PV Rathi also congratulated the wrestlers on being selected for the Indian squad. 

Gurgaon, May 27
Unlike the good old days when most children used to spend their vacations at their grandparents’ place, many now attend activity camps at their schools during the holidays.

Thanks to the growing concept of nuclear families and working mothers, those long visits to “naani’s house” are fast becoming a thing of the past.

The concept is especially catching on in the metro cities, like Gurgaon, where it suits the needs of the overworked and ever-exhausted parents as well as school managements, who are always keen to prove that their institutes have that “edge above the rest”.

No wonder, a number of schools in the city and other parts of the region have come up with summer camps comprising various activities.

Pathways World School, located in the lap of the Aravali will organise a two-week summer programme, “Pathways Rediscovering Minds” from June 6 to 20 on the school premises.

It has both boarding as well as full-day options for children from 11 to 18 years and half-day option for children in the age group of 5 to 10 years.

In addition to extra-curricular activities like drama, dance, design technology, music, visual arts and sports like soccer, tennis, basketball, swimming and billiards, the summer camp also features adventure sports, like trekking, rock-climbing and paragliding.

Another unique feature of the summer camp is the inculcation of life-skills, which include leadership and team building, self-protection, community service, mind-stimulating sessions, grooming and etiquette lessons.

Keeping in mind the curiosity of the parents about what their children have learnt in two weeks, the school has planned a special showcase day for them, where their children would present their newfound skills.

Manav Rachna International School here also organised summer camps from May 14 to 29. These camps were held at the MRI schools, situated in Sector 46 and Sector 51.

During the camps, the children were trained in different sports activities, like indoor basketball, skating, tae-kwon-do, gymnastics, potter’s wheelwork, instrumental as well as vocal music, language development and story enrichment.

“By participating in such group activities, the children gain self-confidence and self-control, learn creative skills, and develop leadership skills,” said Dhriti Malhotra, principal, MRIS, Sector 46.

Kudos to their expertise and concern for children, but how meaningful the whole exercise could become if the managements of prestigious schools spare a thought to involve those underprivileged children, in whose name they get huge grants from the government, but who cannot even think of entering their sprawling campuses.

Yamunanagar, May 27
The district administration has decided to complete the construction of check dams and concrete walls along the Yamuna and seasonal rivulets before monsoon. In the past two years, flood-like situation arising due to the overflow of the Yamuna and rivulets during rainy season has caused much damage. Ashok Sangwan, deputy commissioner, along with other officials, visited villages situated along the river and Som rivulet to assess the progress of work.

Much is required to be done by the administration as the district had witnessed huge loss as over 50 villages were submerged due to the overflow of the Yamuna and seasonal rivulets like Som and Chetang. Water level of the Yamuna crossed 4.25-lakh cusec in 2009 and a similar situation also prevailed in 2008. The flood-like situation had destroyed crops, houses and livestock.

Villagers in the low lying areas have been demanding that the administration should make proper arrangements to protect villages in Bilaspur, Chhachhroli, Khijrabad, Radhaur and Jatlana which have to face misery every year during monsoon.

The villagers also demand the completion of road carpeting and maintenance of drainage system.

The DC visited Mandewala, Kalesar, Bailgarh and Balewala villages of the Chhachhrauli area. Special emphasis has been laid on saving fertile land of the villages sharing border with Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The DC directed officials to make suitable arrangements so that water should not enter the low-lying areas along the Yamuna and seasonal rivulets.

Ambala, May 27
“The government has not spent even a penny for the development of Defence Enclave. The seriousness of officials can be gauged from the fact that none of them ever paid any heed to our problems”.

This was stated by president of Defence Enclave Welfare Association Tirath Ram Kala while talking to The Tribune.

The reason why this enclave came up at its present location was that there was a major demand for housing from Army, Navy and Air Force personnel near the Ambala Cantonment. Though, the Army Welfare Housing Organisation had constructed flats in Sector 9 and HUDA in Ambala City for its personnel, they did not find it convenient.

Karnail Singh, a retired army officer, said many ex-servicemen did not consider it a suitable choice for settling down. They were keen to settle near the cantonment area, where amenities, like military hospital, defence canteen and other facilities were available. However, private builders reaped benefit from their requirements and gradually the Defence Enclave came up. Today, there are more than 600 houses in the four sectors of the enclave, he added.

However, residents rued the lack of infrastructural development in the enclave and said they had been facing problems for the past five years due to the failure of the drainage system, as water from septic tanks overflowed and gets collected in the streets.

There were no internal blacktopped roads or sewerage facilities. Even potable water connections were yet to reach homes and there were no proper power connectivity, the residents said.

“We demand that there should be a proper drainage system and all internal roads should be blacktopped. The steel pipes for electricity wire, which causes disruption in power supply and danger to human life, should be replace with cemented polls,” they demanded.

A survey by the Electricity Department stated that 55 poles were required to replace the steel pipes, but no work had been carried out so far, residents alleged. 

Ambala, May 27
A function for honouring the outstanding students of various fields was organised at PKR Jain Vatika, Ambala City.

KK Sindhu, IG, Ambala range, presided over the function as chief guest.

Awards for various categories like - all rounder, most disciplined, best in table manners, 100 per cent attendance were given.

Bharat Bhushan Jain, president of the school management, highlighted the achievements of the school.

After the lighting of the lamp, the function commenced with navkar mantra.

Cultural programmes like qawwali, ganesh vandana, English song and ballad “Maheshasur Vadh” were performed. The chief guest congratulated the students for their achievements and asked them to work hard to achieve their goals.

He suggested teachers to involve all students in extra-curricular activities as every student have hidden talents.

Principal Uma Sharma also congratulated the students and said the chief guest would be an inspiration to them.

Rewari, May 27
Progressive elders of the Brahmin Samaj have constituted an all-India organisation of the samaj named, “Vipra Foundation”, with a view to promoting national integration, social harmony and consistent advancement of the community.

While Rattan Sharma from Guwahati is the chief patron of the foundation, Sanjay Shirotriya from Chennai has been made its president, Bhagirath Sharma from Jaipur senior vice-president, Ashok Parik of Kolkata general secretary and Pashupati Kumar Sharma of Sikar has been made its treasurer.

Besides, as many as 25 prominent activists of the samaj have been nominated chief executives of various regional units of the foundation throughout the country.

While the foundation was constituted in Kolkata, its announcement was made simultaneously by its regional chief executives in Rewari, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Varanasi, Nagpur, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Jaipur, Udaipur, Indore and several other major cities of the country recently, according to its national convener Sushil Ojha.

Ghanshyam Bhardwaj, chief executive of its Haryana unit, said around one lakh activists would be enrolled with the foundation, which would have a four-tier structure comprising the chapter, district, regional and central-level hierarchy.

He explained that the enlistment of one lakh activists would be accomplished within the next three years and a standing fund of Rs 50 crore would also be set up with the contributions made by the activists.

Highlighting the main objectives of the foundation, Bhardwaj said while health insurance benefit to the tune of Rs 100 crore would be provided to poor Brahmin families throughout the country, interest-free loans would also be made available to community youth aspiring for top administrative jobs and going in for professional education.

Besides, the foundation would play a leading role in forging harmony among various components of Indian society while promoting qualitative Brahmanhood among people of the community.

Rewari, May 27
A seminar on “Role of integrity in public life” was held in collaboration with the All-India Feroze Gandhi Memorial Society in remembrance of the 50th death anniversary of Feroze Gandhi, 46th death anniversary of Jawahar Lal Nehru and seventh death anniversary of Rewari’s premier politician Rao Abhey Singh.

The seminar marked the first annual function of Shanti Devi Law College at Saharanwas village, near here yesterday. Governor Jagannath Pahadia was the chief guest, while senior Congress leader and chief editor, of “Congress Sandesh” Anil Shastri presided over the function.

Besides, Finance, Irrigation, Forest and Environment Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav, Justice Nirmal Yadav of the Uttarakhand High Court and Dr ML Ranga, Vice-Chancellor of GJU, Hisar, were also present on the occasion.

The Governor inaugurated the newly constructed building of SD Law College, Sharanwas. Later, he distributed tricycles and artificial limbs among disabled persons.

Speaking on the occasion, he described Nehru as an architect of modern India and Feroze Gandhi as a fine orator and a well-focused parliamentarian and paid rich tributes to them.

He said Rao Anhey Singh was a proficient legislator of the state, adding that his son Ajay Yadav was now following his ideals.

He stated that owing to the influence of the western culture, youths were deviated from moral values of life and urged the young generation to eschew such westernisation and redeem expectations of their parents. Pahadia stated that with the establishment of a central university at Mahendergarh and a Postgraduate Regional Centre at Rewari as well as the Centre’s nod for the setting up of a defence university at Gurgaon would develop the state into a progressive hub of education in the years to come.

Students of the college presented a colourful cultural programme, including Haryanvi dance and a play, satirising the functioning of the police administration.

The Governor released the college magazine ‘Sankalp’ and distributed prizes to meritorious students of the college.

Paying homage to Nehru, Feroze Gandhi and Rao Abhey Singh, Capt Ajay Singh Yadav recalled their valuable services rendered to the country. Furnishing a synoptic account of the establishment of the Law College, he said it would provide qualitative education to students of the state.

Meanwhile, Dr Uma Shanker Yadav read out the message of Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily to audience. Anil Shastri, Dr ML Ranga, and Pushpender Latka, senior vice-president of All-India Feroze Gandhi Memorial Society also spoke on the occasion.

Sonepat, May 27
Students of local SM Hindu Senior Secondary School, Praveen Kumar of Hullaheri village and Harender of Kasandi village, who got first and fourth positions, respectively, in the Class XII results, were congratulated and offered sweets by deputy commissioner Ajit Joshi at his residence recently.

During an interaction with the DC, Praveen said he belonged to a marginal family. “I used to travel daily from my village to school and used to concentrate on lectures by my class teachers,” he said and added that he did a lot of hard work in preparing for the examinations.

When asked about his future plans, he informed that he wished to join the Birla Institute of Science and Technology at Pilani and also prepare for the Civil Services examination.

Harender informed that his father was a marginal farmer. He said his aim was to become an engineer and also to crack Civil Services.

Jhajjar, May 27
Now, residents of the district will not have to spend much time to reach Dwarika (New Delhi) as a 25-km-long four-laned road will soon be constructed from Jhajjar to Dwarka.

An assurance to this effect has been given to Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Kamal Nath. The MP had recently called on the Union Minister in New Delhi to stress for the demand of this road for the development of National Capital Region (NCR).

People of this region have been raising this demand for a long time as the district does not have even a two-lane road to Delhi.

Talking to The Tribune, Deepender Hooda said with the construction of this road a large part of Haryana would be directly connected to Delhi as it would also make easy access to AIIMS-II being set up at Bhadsa village under Bahadurgarh subdivision here.

“Besides, the area of Jhajjar district will also witness more industrial, social and economic development,” said the MP, adding that he was appreciative of the response of the Union Minister for this project and hoped that the process of construction of this road would commence soon.

Deepender said he was also in touch with Delhi Chief Minister Sheela Dixit regarding this development project. He has also urged Kamal Nath to construct a bypass away from the populated area under the Rohtak-Jhajjar-Bawal national highway.

“The Union Minister has assured me that my demand will be considered after getting the area examined,” said Deepender.

Kalka, May 27
Resentment prevails among as many as 130 lambardars (headman of village) of Kalka tehsil as they have not received their retainer money for the past four months.

Lambardars told the Tribune that the state government had started retainership of Rs 750 per month to them in 2006. Since then they have been regularly getting the money. But they have not received their retainership since January this year, they add.

They say most of the lambardars are of old age and they have to come to Kalka tehsil office from far off places. They also complain that there is no fix date for the disbursement of the money. They also allege that behaviour of the officials who disburse the money is not satisfactory. The lambardars have also demanded that the payment should be made through banks and the amount should be raised to Rs 1,000 per month. 

The volte-face by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda over support to khap panchayats, coupled with the recent expression of tacit support by Naveen Jindal to their demand for amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and Shadi Lal Batra’s attempt at introducing a private member’s Bill in this regard in the Rajya Sabha signifies not more than a “political gimmick” by these Congress leaders to score a point over their political opponents. If the Hooda government is really serious over the issue, why doesn’t it takes initiative to introduce such a Bill in the Assembly after seeking permission from the Central government as the Hindu Marriage Act is central legislation like UP and Tamil Nadu which had made state-specific amendments to the Act. It is pertinent to mention that when khaps sought an amendment to the Hindu Marriage Act banning marriage between parties belonging to the same gotra as well as residing in the same or a nearby village, OP Chautala was the first to come out in open support. Actually, the support by these parties is just to project themselves as the real messiah of khap interests. Politics apart, if interpreted thoroughly, the Act already denounces same-gotra marriage. This is because of the fact that prior to enactment of the Act, there was the Hindu Marriage Disabilities Removal Act, 1946(HMDRA), which clearly stated that notwithstanding any text, rule or interpretation of the Hindu Law of any custom or usage, a marriage between two Hindus which is otherwise valid, shall not be invalid but for the reason that the parties thereto belong to the same gotra or pravara or to different sub-division of the same caste. But when the Hindu Marriage Act was enacted, its section 30 repealed the HMDRA. Also vide section 29 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, the marriages solemnised before its commencement were saved from being invalid only because of the fact that the parties belonged to the same gotra.

HEMANT KUMAR, Ambala City