Yamunanagar, July 27
Deputy Commissioner Ashok Sangwan today announced a grant of Rs 1 lakh each to the kin of the seven persons killed due to floods in the Bilaspur and Chhachhrauli subdivisions in the past three days.

He said a total of 34,000 acres of agricultural land in 69 villages falling in the Bilaspur and Chhachhrauli subdivisons had been submerged in floodwaters. Water had now receded in 18,000 acres of agricultural land while 16,000 acres of land in Bilaspur and Chhachhrauli remained submerged.

The government had ordered a special girdawari in the flood-affected villages, he said. “Water has receded from most residential areas in the villages, but a few villages remain submerged in water. “We have set up a control room in each of the 42 villages to get a day-to-day report on the condition of villagers and the facilities required to be provided
to them. “We will provide free foodgrain and kerosene to all affected villages,” he said. He said the public health department had been directed to chlorinate water and the sarpanches told to directly contact senior officials in case of a medical emergency in their areas,” he added. Meanwhile, at least 100 villages in Chhachhrauli and Bilaspur subdivision are facing a blackout

Officials say it will take time to restore power supply in these villages. It will take months to construct the road along the Dadupur-Nalvi canal and to strengthen the canal’s embankments and repair the bridge over it

In Baloli village of Chhachhrauli, a larger portion of the road has been washed away, dividing the village into two. The DC said; “ We are providing electric torch es to the villagers to cope up with the situation .”

Sirsa, July 27
Removing floodwaters in Bani village, several parts of which are still submerged, is proving to be a difficult task.

The village is located in an inter-dunal depression area, about 15 ft below the Ghaggar’s bed. Its topography is making the task of dewatering the area almost impossible.

Geologists say such inter-dunal depression areas are often found in Rajasthan and its surrounding areas, with portions of land between two longitudinal sand dunes. The village is 9 km from the right bank of the Ghaggar, Massive breaches on July 14 led to flooding of Bani. The village’s geographical location and the bottlenecks created by Indira Gandhi Canal saw the village immersed almost completely.

Bani, located near Haryana’s border with Rajasthan, is almost equidistance from the Ghaggar and Indira Gandhi Canal.

Besides uprooting hundreds of families, the waters submerged 1,70,000 bags of wheat stacked in the storehouse of the Haryana Warehousing Corporation.

Hundreds of families have been living in camps and putting up in the open on dunes in the hope that the water would recede and they would be able to return to their homes.

However, sources in the irrigation department said any immediate solution was unlikely.

The authorities had made a cut on the right bank of the Ghaggar but in vain. The other option of pumping out the water was fraught with danger as it could cause waterlogging in the three villages of Sehenpal, Mattuwala and Dhudianwali.

“We will consider dewatering of the village after the water level comes down to a certain level,” said the XEN, Irrigation, SK Rajvanshi.

A proposal to send the floodwaters aground by digging big bore wells was also under consideration, he added.

Jind, July 27
The District and Sessions Court here has imposed a penality of `10,000 on the station house officer (SHO) of the police station (Sadar) of Narwana in connection with his alleged failure to carry out the arrest warrant of one of the accused involved in the lynching of a Vedpal, a youth at Singhwal village in July last year.

The court has ordered the police to arrest the accused identified as Mahender Singh, a resident of the same village, by August 7 next and produce him in the court.

The police so far has not been able to arrest the accused, though about 12 persons have already been arrested in this connection.

The court had earlier directed the authorities concerned to stop the payment of salaries of some of the police officials, including the SHO for their inability to arrest the accused.

It may be recalled that the victim Vedpal had married Sonia after eloping and had later filed a petition in the High Court seeking custody of his wife after her parents took away the girl back after a few days of marriage.

The court had appointed a warrant officer to escort Vedpal to Singhwal for the purpose, but Vedpal was ‘murdered’ in full public view by a mob, after he had reached the village to take the custody of his wife, in presence of the high court official and the police on July 22 last year.

The gotra panchayat of the village, which had opposed this marriage on the ground that the boy hailed from the neighbouring village and such a marriage was against the social norms, had reportedly pronounced death for the boy soon after the elopement and the marriage. 

Hisar, July 27
Supporters of former minister and Congress leader Chhattarpal Singh today gehraoed the Returning Officer for election of President of the Hisar District Congress Committee (rural), Sandeep Singh, even before he announced the poll results.

Chhatarpal Singh is the outgoing chief of the Hisar District Congress Committee (rural). When the Returning Officer arrived at the Congress Bhawan, supporters of Chhattarpal Singh squatted in front of his car. Chhatarpal Singh pleaded with them to withdraw from there, but his supporters did not budge.

After some time, SP Subhash Yadav arrived at the scene with a police posse. He convinced the protesters to let the car proceed, following which the Returning Officer left the premises.

Later, he circulated the results of the election and declared former MP Jai Parkash as the new President of the Hisar District Congress Committee (rural) in place of his bete noire Chhatarpal Singh.

On the other hand, Ved Rawal was declared elected as the President of the Hisar District Congress Committee (urban). His election was announced by the Returning Officer of the urban unit former minister, Ram Bhajan Aggarwal.

Sandeep Singh later described the incident as “nothing much” saying this was a normal happening as the Congress was a democratic party.

Hisar, July 27
The massive road cave-in at Camp Chowk here caused by the collapse of huge sewer lines underneath has rung a warning bell for the Public Health Department.

Although the real cause of the cave-in is yet to be ascertained, officials say the rise in underground water table over the decades could be one of the reasons for last week’s incident that resulted in a 5 ft-wide crater at Camp Chowk on the Delhi road.

Several motorists had a providential escape when the road suddenly caved. A tractor-trailer was passing over this section of the road when the incident occurred. Just as the tractor rode past, its trailer got stuck in the crater. Officials said the three sewers flowing below had developed a major leak caused by displacement of a section of the line. The displacement itself could have been the result of rise in the underground water table. However, it was too early to confirm it. Public Health department officials now fear that similar incidents could happen anywhere. The department is likely to launch a special drive to check the health of sewer lines, especially those laid in the eighties and the nineties.

The department has initiated repair work at the site. Work is on round the clock but efforts are being hampered by rain. 

Chandigarh, July 27
Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced that newborn corners (NBC) and Sick New Born Care Units (SNCUs) will be set up in all government hospitals in the state to check the infant mortality rate.

Besides, a special campaign will be launched to treat the anaemic children. These and some other special decisions to improve the health facilities were taken at the general body meeting of State Health Mission held here yesterday. Hooda, who presided over the meeting, said units for the NBC would be set up at 144 sub-centres, 11 RCH centres and 156 primary health centres under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).

Earmarked exclusively for the care of the newborn, these will be located in the labour room and shall be equipped with provisions for countering pre-maturity, hypothermia, birth asphyxia and infection. Sick New Born Care Units (SNCUs) would be set up in all district-level government hospitals.

Such SNCUs would also be set up in all government hospitals by March 2011. Each unit, having the capacity to admit and treat six to 10 sick newborns, would provide them with specialised intensive care at district hospitals and all referrals from C/PHC/sub-centres.

Fatehabad, July 27
After two days of repair work in the agriculture fields of Chindhar village here, Z 1810 Chetak helicopter of the Indian Air Force (IAF), that made an emergency landing near the village, finally flew off in the morning today.

The chopper took off for Sirsa-based station of the IAF at 9.35 am and another Chetak helicopter of the Air Force flew as escort for it, said Shamsher Singh Dahiya, SHO of the Sadar police station, who had been maintaining law and order on the fields for the past two days due to large turnout of villagers.

Group Captain Anil Sabharwal, Station Commander of the IAF Sirsa, confirmed that the chopper had reached Sirsa and would soon be flown to Hindon, where it belonged.

The choppers had made an emergency landing on the fields on Sunday, when its engine developed a snag and caught fire in midair.

Though its pilots later flew back to their base, a team of IAF’s technical staff from Hindon led by Wing Commander KV Charv worked continuously to repair the chopper.

The technical staff had first tried to shift the snagged chopper to Sirsa for repairs, but later replaced its engine on the fields, when they could not load it on a truck.

A technician of the IAF sustained injuries while working on the chopper’s engine yesterday and was rushed to Maharaja Agarsen Medical Institute at Agroha.

The injured technician, a corporal rank jawan of the IAF, received stitches on his left hand, according to the police.

Gurgaon, July 27
The Gurgaon police has unearthed a betting racket with the arrest of eight persons from Sector 40 here. Five revolvers, 29 live cartridges, four laptops and 51 mobile-phone handsets were seized from their possession. The arrested persons were later produced before a local court, which sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.

Stating this at a press conference here today, Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP) Alok Mittal said on getting a tip-off, a police team raided House No. 116 in Mohyal Colony of Sector 40 last evening.

Eight persons found betting on a cricket match being played between India and Sri Lanka were arrested from there. These include Subhash and Satbir of Mokhra village in Rohtak district, Lokesh and Naresh from Jharsa village in Gurgaon district, Davender of Devsar village in Bhiwani, Om Prakash of Phoolpura village in Bhiwani, Shyam of Kharak in Bhiwani and Amit from Alwar, Rajasthan.

Mittal said besides the eight persons arrested on the spot, five others, who were wanted in this connection, were being tracked by the police.

The call details of the persons contacted frequently from the mobile phones recovered from the arrested persons were being tracked, he said.

Mittal said Subhash also fired at the police party, which had gone for conducting the raid.

The double-storeyed house, which was being used by the accused for betting, was said to be owned by Mahesh, alias “Attack”, of Jharsa, against whom 15 criminal cases are registered in Gurgaon. The cases include four of murder, two of loot, two of robbery, three of attempt to murder, two of coercion and one each of house-breaking and Arms Act. Davender and Shyam were also wanted for murder cases registered in Bhiwani.

Rohtak, July 27
Two teenaged unemployed youths attempted suicide here yesterday. While one of them died, the other was rescued by the locals and has been admitted to a hospital.

The tragic incident took place yesterday when the two youths, identified as Mohan and Kuldeep, were found under a tree in the fields, near Lakhanmajra village, about 20 km from here.

While Kuldeep’s body was found hanging from a tree, the other youth was lying underneath crying in pain.

He survived the suicide attempt after the rope he used broke down midway and he fell before it could have strangled him to death, said a police official. But his friend Mohan was not so lucky in this matter and he died in the bizarre attempt made by the duo.

It is reported that the youths, who had been studying in Class XII had gone to Delhi a few days back to attend a recruitment rally, but could not clear it and had to come back empty handed, claimed kin of the victims.

The deceased hailed from Chausala village of Kaithal district, but had been residing in Rohtak, it is revealed. They had been fast friends and had been living together said the sources.

It is, however, claimed that the frustration from the failure to get recruited must have been the main cause behind the move, as there had been no other cause that has come forth so far. The two reached the spot and hanged themselves, said the police.

A villager, who noticed the victims in the field, informed the police.

The condition of the surviving youth, who has been admitted in the PGIMS hospital here, was reported to be critical.

Two travel bags were recovered from the spot that contained their education documents and clothes.

Chandigarh, July 27
Three years have lapsed since a case was initiated against Haryana IPS officer Manjit Singh Ahlawat by judicial officer MM Dhonchak. Yet, the police officer has not filed his reply, even after the lapse of “last opportunity”.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s Registrar (Judicial) has now directed the matter be placed before the Bench concerned.

The registrar said: “It comes out that the case pertains to year 2007, and appearance of respondent number one was marked on November 3, 2009. Thereafter, some adjournments were sought for filing a written statement.

“Today was the last opportunity. Therefore, it is proper that the Bench should decide whether further time is to be given or not. Now the matter be put before the Bench concerned on July 30.” The high court had, initially, taken note of a letter written by Dhonchak seeking a CBI probe into the allegations of forgery and fraud against Ahlawat during his tenure as SP, Rewari, along with other police officials. Acting on the letter, the then Chief Justice Vijender Jain had directed that the letter be treated as a writ petition. Dhonchak was then posted as additional CJM, Rewari.