Sirsa, July 15
There was panic in the town this morning after leakages were detected on Ghaggar’s outer embankment near Jhopra village, a short distance from the town. Residents rushed to the site in large numbers. Some parents rushed to pick up their wards from school.

Breaches at this point had led to severe floods in the town in 1995.

The Deputy Commissioner, CG Rajini Kaanthan, assured the residents that there was nothing to fear and all leakages had been plugged and the embankment sufficiently strengthened.The fury of flood waters, however, continues to create havoc in villages falling under the Rania block, downstream of the Ottu. Now several villages of Ellenabad have also been deluged.

The Rania-Ellenabad road has been closed to traffic after it came under several feet of water. Ghaggar, meanwhile, has started receding on the upstream at Chandpura in Fatehabad and Khanauri in Punjab, much to the respite of people.“The authorities as well as social welfare associations, particularly Dera Sacha Sauda, have been working relentlessly to save more areas from floods, which have affected 25,000 acres of land in 44 villages,” said Kaanthan. While the breaches near Firozabad could not be plugged due to strong currents, fresh breaches on the Ghaggar flooded several more villages near Rania.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Pankaj Chaudhary rushed to these villages and ordered evacuation of people from Santnagar, Partapnagar, Haripura, Damdama and Kariwala. Villagers are being informed on the public address system to shift to safer places.

The victims are angry with the authorities for not taking timely steps to prevent the floods.

Eatables and other relief material are being sent to Firozabad, Dhani Partap Singh, Dhani Satnam Singh, Dhani Mohar Singh, Nakora and some other villages surrounded by flood waters. Nejadela and Farwai Kalan villages have turned into islands with water all around.

A long stretch of Barnala Road remains under water and inaccessible.

In Fatehabad, villagers blocked Ratia Road, demanding the Rangoi kharif channel be broken to save residential areas from being flooded.

The channel, if breached, may lead to flooding of Fatehabad town. The authorities convinced the villagers to lift the blockade.

Panipat: Panipat’s drain No. 1, which has flooded the city on a number of occasions due to poor upkeep, will no longer remain a neglected channel.

A sum of Rs 41 crore has been sanctioned under the NCR project to convert it into a culvert (enclosed drain). The project was expected to start in the first week of August. Commissioner Rajeev Sharma said the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) would give the drain a concrete bed and embankments. Drain No. 1 has long been a source of stink and other problems for local residents. From drain No. 2, all sullage is discharged into drain 1. The waste water flow of the town is estimated at around 45 million litres per day.

Chandigarh, July 15
Nearly 17 years after Ruchika ended her life, Haryana’s former DGP SPS Rathore today created a flutter in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by indicating she may not have committed suicide after all.

As the former top cop’s appeal against conviction and 18-month sentence awarded in the Ruchika molestation case came up for hearing before Justice Jitendra Chauhan this afternoon, his wife-cum-counsel Abha Rathore asserted in the open court that her suicide was a matter of dispute.

“No investigations were carried out to ascertain the factual position,” asserted Abha Rathore in the courtroom. Though she did not allege foul play in clear terms, Abha asserted Ruchika’s stepmother was staying in their house at the time of the incident.

Taking a note of her assertion, Justice Chauhan questioned Abha Rathore on the cause of the death as apparent from the post-mortem report. “Poison,” was Abha Rathore’s one-word answer to the query.

She also made attempts to project Rathore as a victim of a plot hatched to defame him Abha told the court that the case smacked of conspiracy.

In an attempt to substantiate her contention, Abha questioned the very preparation of the memorandum on the incident. “Why was it prepared and published in the press,” she questioned, indicating at an attempt to defame Rathore.

She said as part of a well-executed conspiracy, the memorandum was not submitted to the state DGP or Chief Secretary, but was handed over to the then Home Secretary, JK Duggal.

Without an endorsement, it was forwarded to another officer, BS Ojha. No entry on receiving the memorandum was made in both offices and the meetings were held without prior appointment. She said the Home Secretary should have ordered registration of an FIR, but what followed was taking over of the tennis association office. “If it was only a case of molestation, why was the office taken over,” she questioned.

Abha said an administrative inquiry was ordered and the inquiry officer gave a “shallow report”, recommending registration of a case instead of doing so himself. She insisted that registration of a case against Rathore at that stage would have brought out the truth and he would have come out clean, as the coach and another witness, Paltu, could have been examined.

Kurukshetra, July 15
In a noble gesture to help primary schoolchildren, Kurukshetra MP Navin Jindal has dedicated his consolidated salary as the Member of Parliament for the past five years from 2004 to 2009 for the uplift of students of government primary schools in Kurukshetra.

The amount of the consolidated salary was Rs 40 lakh and Jindal made an additional contribution of Rs 10 lakh from his personal income to raise the amount to Rs 50 lakh.

It was for the first time that a sitting MP has contributed such a large amount for the educational requirements of children in a particular constituency setting a rare example to emulate.

The amount of Rs 50 lakh will be used for buying around 5 lakh notebooks for children studying in 1.4 lakh primary schools in nine assembly segments of Kurukshetra. At least 3 notebooks will be distributed to each student numbering 1.23 lakh in Kaithal and Kurukshetra and 13,000 in the Radaur assembly segment of the constituency.

Talking to reporters, Jindal said: “This is just a small step towards realising the Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s dream of imparting education to all children to enable the state achieve the number one status in terms of education.”

Jindal said that efforts were also being made to include some private schools located in rural areas in the scheme.

Making a reference to his father former Minister OP Jindal, who founded the Gramin Jan Kalyan Sansthan, he said: “My father always encouraged education for all, especially for the girl child.

“He always said by educating a boy we educate a family, but by educating a girl, we educate two families.”

Jind, July 15
Students of Government Primary school at Roopgarh village in the district had to wait for about two hours to gain entry into the school. The school, having about 70 students, was locked up by the locals in connection with some dispute. It was opened later after the intervention of the authorities concerned.

The gate of the school was locked this morning by some residents of the village who alleged that the studies and the functioning of the school was having adversely affected due to a dispute and infighting among the staff and some locals, sources said.

While the District Education Officer had to intervene to get the school opened, it is also learnt that there had been a kind of internal infighting which had been on among the teaching staff and the Principal of the school over certain issues.

One of the issue that came to the knowledge of officials is reported to be the matter of the alleged axing down and selling of a tree that had been located on the premises of the school and this had been opposed by some teachers who alleged that it could not be done without the involvement of a staff member with some local residents. It is claimed that while teachers and the head mistress had been allegedly involved in the dispute, this had been hampering the studies and this made villagers to lock up the school to highlight the problem and get the matter resolved, a villager said.

The lock was removed around 9.30 am when officials of the District Education Department reached the spot and talked to villagers. However, sources in the department said disputes among the staff over various issues had been a major problem in several schools and this had let down the academic atmosphere in the state government-run schools in the district. At present, there are over 300 government schools in the district.

Chandigarh, July 15
The Haryana government today released Rs 87 crore to various departments for repair of infrastructure damaged during the recent floods and for other relief measures in the state even as Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda announced the conversion of short-term cooperative loans worth Rs 201.21 crore into medium-term loans in six flood-affected districts.

The Centre has also agreed to send an inter-ministerial team led by Joint Secretary RP Nath to visit Haryana on July 19 and 20 for an on-the-spot assessment of the flood situation in the state.

The team is being sent in response to the request of Hooda to the Prime Minister. Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management Department, Naresh Gulati said Rs 40 crore had been released to the Public Works (Building and Roads) Department, Rs 20 crore to the Power Department, Rs 20 crore to the Urban Local Bodies Department, Rs 4 crore to the Irrigation Department, Rs 3 crore to the Health Department, Rs 1.5 crore to the Public Health Engineering Department and Rs 50 lakh to the Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department for carrying out relief operations in the flood-affected areas.

Hooda said in Ambala district, loans amounting to Rs 71 crore would be converted into medium-term loans, followed by Rs 55 crore in Kaithal district, Rs 46 crore in Kurukshetra district, Rs 22.09 crore in Fatehabad district, Rs 6.12 crore in Sirsa and Rs 1 crore in Yamunanagar. Besides, the Haryana Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (HAFED) had been directed to arrange 4.50 lakh metric tonnes of DAP at a cost of Rs 430.42 crore and 5 lakh metric tones of urea at a cost of Rs 255.50 crore as advised by the Agriculture Department.

Fatehabad, July 15
Five members of a boy’s family were injured when kin of the girl allegedly attacked them while they were sleeping at their residence in Bhiardana village last night. The attackers, according to the victims, were angry after the boy and the girl ran away from their houses and married in a temple. The couple is still on the run and the girl’s kin alleged that the boy’s family had a hand in their disappearance.

The injured family members of the boy, Ranjit Singh, including his brother and mother, have sustained sharp-edged weapon injuries.

Ranjit’s mother Jogindero has sustained fractures on both her legs. Ranjit Singh had run away with a girl from his village and married in a temple in May and sought security from the court.

The local police had provided protection to the couple on July 9. The injured kin of the youth alleged that the police withdrew the protection within a day by getting their signatures on blank papers. The police has registered a case and begun investigations.

Meanwhile, Ranjit Singh allegedly struck his head against the wall in the office of SP Jagwant Singh Lamba, where he had gone to seek justice for his family members, who were injured in the attack. The police has booked him for attempt to suicide.

The SP, however, denied that the incident occurred in his office and said the youth attempted suicide near the bus stand and an FIR under Section 309 of the IPC has been registered on the complaint of the gunman provided to him.

Jind, July 15
Residents of colonies located near the district headquarters blocked the traffic on the main road in the city last night following a disruption in power supply. This was the second such incident within 24 hours as the protesters had gone for such a blockade on the same road previous night.

According to reports, the movement of vehicles on the Jind-Gohana road and the bypass leading to Rohtak was stopped last night.

The protest continued for about one-and-a-half hour till the police and district officials reached the spot and assured of an action to redress their grievances.

Earlier, residents of the colonies, including the Urban Estate, DC colony, Defence colony, Housing Board colony, Employees colony, Ram colony and Vijay Nagar, here came out on the main road located opposite the residence of the SP here and staged a dharna there around 10 am during the power cut.

Raising slogans against the district administration and the state government, they claimed that shortage of supply had led to serious inconvenience, which includes short supply of drinking water in these areas for the past several days.

Chandigarh, July 15
Till now it was Punjab Akalis versus Haryana Congressmen. Now it is Congressmen versus Congressmen in both states. Former Punjab Congress Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had yesterday blamed Haryana, especially its prestigious Hansi-Butana link canal project, for the floods in Punjab. Today, in a strongly worded statement, Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana took on Amarinder Singh and described his statement as “politically motivated and contrary to facts”.

Mullana said it was well-known that the origin of floods was in Punjab. It was wrong to blame Haryana for the woes of the people of that state. Mullana said either Amarinder Singh was not aware of the facts or wanted to mislead the people so as to prove himself as the best well-wisher of Punjab. Describing the Hansi-Butana Link Canal as “legal”, Mullana said had it been illegal, as claimed by Amarinder Singh, the Supreme Court would have accepted the prayer of Punjab to stay its construction. Even the Central Water Commission had said that no inter-state issue was involved in the matter.