Chandigarh, October 16
Nothing can be enough to acknowledge the laurels Haryana’s sportspersons have brought for the country and for the state at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games. While they will be honoured for their achievement on Haryana Day, November 1, at a function in Sonepat by the state government with cash rewards, all medal winners hailing from Haryana have also earned Maruti cars for themselves.

Keeping in view Maruti Udyog’s long association with Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda persuaded the MUL management in Japan to gift cars to the players, which the latter agreed to. The keys of the new cars will be handed over to the players by Hooda at the state-level function in Sonepat.

The 15 gold medallists from Haryana and two other players, Saina Nehwal and Sushil Kumar, having close connection with Haryana, will be given Maruti SX4. Seven silver medallists will be given Maruti Dzire while the eight bronze medallists from the state will get Maruti WagonR cars.

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has thanked the MUL for its sports and state-friendly gesture of honouring the players. The state government is honouring all gold medallists from Haryana with a cash reward of Rs 15 lakh each, silver medallists will be given Rs 10 lakh each while the bronze medallists will be honoured with Rs 5 lakh each.

As many as 54 players from the state had represented the country in the Commonwealth Games and had won 17 gold, seven silver and eight bronze medals for the country.

Meanwhile, Haryana Sports Minister Gopal Kanda has criticised the INLD’s alleged attempts to take false credit for the players’ achievement and politicise the sports achievements of the state.

Attacking the previous INLD government, Kanda said the Chautala government had only one achievement of installing the then Chief Minister’s son, Abhey Chautala, as the Haryana Olympic Association (HOA) president for the rest of his life. He said the people were aware of the performance of the INLD government, which had only one agenda - to promote the Chautala family.

Bhiwani, October 16
Bhiwani residents gave a rousing welcome to Anita Sheoran, Commonwealth Games gold medallist in wrestling, near Rohtak Gate here today.

Anita and her coach Zile Singh Bagri were brought to the city in a procession, which passed through Rohtak Gate, Meham Gate, Hansi Gate, Jat Dharmshala, Government Girls College, Kharkadi village, and Dhani Mahu. Anita belongs to this village. At several places, she was garlanded by people.

KURUKSHETRA: Wrestler Rajender Kumar, who won the gold in the Commonwealth Games, was accorded a warm welcome on his arrival from Delhi here on Saturday.

He was taken in a procession from Kurukshetra University and was welcomed by people while passing through the main markets of the town. The procession culminated at his native village, Umri, 5 km from here. Wrestling coach Shamsher Singh was among those present.

District Sports and Youth Programme Officer Soma Sokhi said Rajender Kumar had brought laurels to Haryana by winning the gold in the 55 kg category of wrestling.

Fatehabad, October 16
In what seems to be an ugly act of deceit, an organised gang of fraudsters has tricked a bank officer and his college-going daughter here.

The perpetrators of the fraud have gone to the extent of misusing the name and office of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda in their mischief.

The bank officer, Krishan Kumar, a land valuation officer in the Haryana State Cooperative and Rural Development Bank, has received three letters regarding the “high academic achievements” of his daughter along with an invite to the family for lunch with Hooda.

The first letter states that his teenaged daughter, a BSc first-year student of DN PG College, Hisar, has achieved the first position and has been chosen for the “Haryana Talented Student - 2010 Award” and she will be conferred with the award at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on October 23.

Interestingly, the letter, written in flawed English, is purported to have been written on behalf of Hooda.

As if this was not enough, another letter, a printed invitation, this time purported to have been sent by “Mrs and Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda”, invites the girl, Neelam, and her parents for lunch with the Chief Minister at 715, Model Town, Rohtak, on October 27. The invitation card also has a number of mistakes.

A third letter, purported to have been sent by the Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, offers Neelam admission to its BTech course.

The letter, which carries a computerised photograph of the girl, has purportedly been sent by “Dr Krishnaswamy, former chairman,” and interestingly, the name does not figure in the list of former chairmen of the organization on the ISRO’s website.

The letter mentions Ist Cross Road, RMV Stage 2, Bangalore, as the address of the ISRO office in Bangalore and had called Neelam for an interview on October 7.

However, before she could proceed for the interview, a telephone call on the family’s landline phone informed them that the interview had been postponed to October 14.

Again, before October 14, the family was intimated that the condition of her interview had been waived in view of the award conferred on her and she could come and deposit her fees and credentials with ISRO.

Though the letters appear fake by their appearance, The Tribune contacted Hooda and as expected the invitation turned out to be fake. Neelam maintains that she appeared in two separate exams for the HTS-2010 and ISRO held at two prestigious schools in Hisar and Sirsa, respectively, and the envelope containing the letters was handed over to her in the college, where the Principal as well as some other teachers got their photographs clicked with her in view of her “unique achievement”.

She said the application forms of the tests, too, were filled through her college.

RK Tomar, Principal of DN PG College, Hisar, said some teacher informed him that a student of the college had been selected for admission to ISRO and claimed he had no knowledge of any invitation.

He denied that the college had anything to do with the filling of application forms for the tests.

Bhiwani, October 16
Former Sports Minister and Tosham legislator Kiran Choudhry has sought an international-level sports university for Bhiwani. She also demanded to appoint all gold medallists as DSPs and honourable posts for silver and bronze medallists of the state.

Talking to mediapersons here today, Choudhry said prior to the Commonwealth Games, Bhiwani sportspersons had proved their worth in Olympics and Asian games. “Seven out of 11 players from Bhiwani have won medals in the CWG,” she said, adding that from a total of 48 players from the state, 11 were from Bhiwani district. “The district has claimed maximum honours and Bhiwani is called the “mini-Cuba” when referred to boxing,” said Choudhry.

The former minister said in the talent hunt conducted by the state government recently, Bhiwani players outnumbered the entire state.

Since other districts like Hisar, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Sonepat, Narnaul, Jind and Rewari are directly connected with Bhiwani district, setting up a sports university here will benefit all sportspersons of the state, maintained Choudhry.

“I’ll soon meet Chief Minister BS Hooda and urge him to send a proposal of setting up a sports university in Bhiwani to the Centre,” she said.

Ambala, October 16
Six persons were killed while 15 others received injuries when a bus collided with a truck near Mullana village on the Ambala-Jagadhri road around 2 am today.

The police said the accident occurred when a private bus, on the way to Haridwar, collided head-on with a truck, which was coming from Yamunanagar, opposite the gate of the New Anaj Mandi, Mullana.

The tourist bus (UP 85 U 9846) first hit the truck (HR 58 C 9077) and then rammed into a tree. The bus got badly damaged in the accident and its passengers, most of them residents of UP, received multiple injuries.

Thirteen bus passengers were taken to Mullana Hospital. Two of them, Bhanwer Singh and Ravinder Singh, were referred to the PGI, Chandigarh.

According to OP Aggarwal, Professor and Head, Forensic Medicine, Medical College, Mullana, who conducted the post-mortem, said all six bodies had been shifted to the mortuary after the postmortem examination. He said all injured passengers were out of danger.

The deceased have been identified as Seema (35), a resident of Ganju Rai, Mathura; Karam Singh (70), Ram Kishore (65) and Bai Kunti Devi (60), all residents of Laxmi Nagar, Mathura; Sunita (30) of Nari Samvri Chatti, Mathura; and Laxmi Devi (40), a resident of Hargobind Nagar, Mathura. The police said both vehicles had been impounded.

A case has been registered at the Mullana police station in this regard.

Chandigarh, October 16
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has urged the banks to charge only 4 per cent interest rate for agriculture advances and for loans raised by self-help groups in the state. The issue was raised when Governor of the Reserve Bank of India D Subarao met Hooda yesterday.

Hooda also laid stress for relaxing the norms for differential rate of interest loans and to include all below poverty line persons of the state as eligible for the scheme so that they could be provided small loans at 4 per cent rate of interest for housing and income generating activities.

He said the present eligibility criterion of Rs 18,000 and Rs 24,000 for rural and urban areas, respectively, is unrealistic for the prosperous state like Haryana.

Hooda also expressed concern at the high rate of interest charged by micro finance institutions. He asked for moderating their interest rates. He said many poor persons have to pay their total interest liability exceeding the principal amount of loan raised by them, which becomes difficult for such persons to repay it. The RBI Governor assured to look into the matter.

Hooda also raised the issue of mortgaging more land than required as per the floor rates in the state. He said the agricultural land was being valued at a very conservative rate for the purpose of valuation of collaterals. He also urged for releasing the land mortgaged by the commercial banks as has been released by the cooperative banks of the state.

Rewari, October 16
Taking a serious note of the principal’s alleged offensive conduct towards a student of Government College, Hoshiar Singh, who allegedly committed suicide, agitated villagers, along with the family members of the deceased, yesterday gave an ultimatum to the district administration, saying that if the principal was not arrested by October 18, a mahapancahayat of Bawal Chaurasi (cluster of 84 villages) will be held to chalk out their future course of action.

Meanwhile, teachers of various colleges of Bawal, Rewari, Nahar, Guraora and Kanwali along with principal Kamlesh Yadav met SP KV Ramana here today and submitted a memorandum to him seeking withdrawal of the case of abetment to suicide registered against the principal.

Describing the implication of the principal in the above case as unjustified, they said the principal had just taken the ID-Card from Hoshiar Singh, who was found passing indecent remarks against girl students on the college premises. Therefore, he could not be held accountable for the suicidal death of Hoshiar Singh.

However, family members of the deceased yesterday alleged that Hoshiar Singh was beaten up and insulted by the principal, whose “obnoxious conduct” led him to end his life.