Fatehabad, November 28
Eight persons, including seven women, were killed and 14 others injured, some of them critically, when a Tata Ace vehicle they were travelling in collided with a bus near Haroli village in the district.

The victims belonged to a single extended family of former sarpanch Rahla Singh of Kamana village and had gone to mourn a death at Sardulewala village in Punjab.

Civil Surgeon OP Arya, who monitored the treatment of the injured in the Community Health Centre at Ratia and in the general hospital here, said there were 23 persons in the Tata Ace vehicle which collided head-on with a bus between Jallopur and Haroli villages, when they were returning home.

Driver Hans Raj and three women died on the spot.

Someone brought the matter to the notice of the police at Ratia after which a police party reached the accident site and began rescue operations.

However, by the time the injured could be brought to the Community Health Centre at Ratia, two more women had died.

Two more woman died at the general hospital, Fatehabad.

There was a state of chaos at the CHC, Ratia, where doctors had no arrangements for such a large number of accident victims.

“We had to requisition the services of private doctors of the town to provide first aid to the victims before shifting some of them to Fatehabad, as we have only one senior medical officer and a medical officer at Ratia,” said the Civil Surgeon.

Ten victims were being treated in Ratia and SMO VK Jain said two of them might be shifted to Fatehabad.

Heartrending scenes were witnessed at Ratia and Fatehabad with kin of the victims wailing on seeing the dead and the injured.

There was utter confusion as the critically injured persons were first shifted from Ratia to Fatehabad and then some of them were shifted to the Medical College, Agroha.

Dr Arya said two victims had been shifted to Agroha while two others were getting treatment at Fatehabad.

Sat Pal Singh, a villager from Kamana, alleged that there were no arrangements for treating the injured either at Ratia or at Fatehabad.

He alleged that the only thing the doctors did at both places was to refer their patients to the next higher hospital.

While some villagers played good Samaritans by helping the police in relief operations, they alleged that some ambulance drivers displayed insensitivity and refused to allow the injured to be taken out of their vehicle till entries in their register were completed.

Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar, SP Jagwant Singh Lamba also reached the Ratia hospital to oversee the rescue operations.

Villagers block the Sirsa-Barnala-Chandigarh road near Farwai Kalan village in Sirsa. A Tribune photograph

Sirsa, November 28
Irked at the non-payment of relief for loss occurred due to floods, farmers from Farwai Kalan village blocked traffic on the Chandigarh Road here yesterday.

The villagers blocked the Sirsa-Barnala-Chandigarh road and did not allow any vehicle to pass through, resulting in inconvenience to motorists.

The protesters also cut trees to create hurdles.

Village sarpanch Ram Jas alleged that no compensation had been given to them though their crops and houses were damaged in floods that inundated their village in July.

Many villagers also alleged that the officials, who surveyed the area, were biased in their approach and certain farmers, who did not suffer any loss, had been compensated, while others who actually suffered losses, had not been given any relief.

The farmers also said they had approached the authorities many times, but nothing had been done in this regard.

Efforts by the police failed to move the villagers. They relented only after SDM Satish Kumar Jain assured them of a fresh survey. 

Sirsa/Fatehabad, November 28
Even as the draft publication of the electoral rolls has already been made on November 10 after fresh registration for the inclusion of new voters in the lists, none of the 21 districts of Haryana meet the projected targets of “percentage voters of the total population”.

Sirsa and Fatehabad districts rank among some top districts of the state in the matter of Elector-Population Ratio (EPR), the percentage of persons eligible to vote.

Sirsa with 563 eligible persons per thousand of the total population ranks second in Haryana, next only to Mahendragarh with an EPR of 566.

Fatehabad has 540 registered voters per thousand of the population.

Rohtak (552) and Rewari (542) are some other districts with a good EPR.

While the percentage of projected population of eligible persons (aged 18 or above) in the state is 58.60 per cent, the average registration of electors in Haryana is 49.89 per cent.

As per the figures of the Election Department, the EPR is quite low in some districts of Haryana leading to the low average at the state level.

Faridabad with an EPR of 389 is at the bottom of the table, while Mewat (439), Panchkula (444), Palwal (451), Sonepat (454), Panipat (457), Jind (490) and Yamunanagar (497) are some other districts where the EPR is lower than the state average.

The department attributes the low registration partially to the high migrant population in some of these districts and largely to the apathy and disinterest in political activities shown by the urban population.

The apathy of the urban population can be gauged from the fact that the EPR in Faridabad NIT is mere 339, while in Panchkula city it is 433.

If Haryana has a skewed sex ratio with 861 females against 1,000 males as per the 2001 census, the elector-gender ratio (EGR) is even poorer in the state at 840 female voters against 1,000 male voters.

Faridabad again is at the bottom of the table with the registration of only 769 females against 1,000 males, 92 less than the state figure of the gender ratio and 70 less than the district’s own gender ratio.

Yamunanagar, Sonepat, Karnal, Panipat, Jind and Mahendragarh are some other districts where the elector-gender ratio is less than their respective census gender ratio.

Fatehabad District Election Officer Vijay Singh Dahiya said claims and objections to the draft publications had been invited up to November 30; disposal of the claims and objections would be done on December 13 and the final publication of electoral rolls would be done on January 5, 2011.

Hisar, November 28
Tension gripped Mayyar village, near here, today after the arrest of an accused in connection with the violence in the village on September 13 on the issue of reservation for Jats in government jobs.

Rajesh Kumar of Hansewala village in Fatehabad district was arrested yesterday on charges of arson.

He was produced before a court which remanded him to police custody for a day.

As news news of his arrest reached the village, leaders of the Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, including the district president Jagjit Singh Panghal, descended on the village.

They met senior administrative officers to seek his release.

Later, they came to Mayyar and sat on a dharna on the roadside.

The police stationed heavy reinforcements on both sides of the village road along National Highway 10 as a precautionary measure.

The Haryana Roadways suspended services and diverted long-route buses to alternative routes. Traffic was diverted to other routes, both from Hansi and Hisar.

The accused was produced before a magistrate by the police around 3 pm.

He was released on bail. It was only after his release that the Jats ended their dharna, much to the relief of the administration.

There was widespread violence in September when the reservation stir turned violent. A youth was killed in police firing. Property worth crores was burnt during the violence.

The protesters had smashed windowpanes of a bus belonging to the Karnal depot of the Haryana Roadways near Jandli village in Fatehabad.

They had stopped traffic by cutting trees near Ramsaran on the Mehrana Road, Banmandori and Pilimandori on Chopta Road and at Dehman and Lahoria on the Bhuna-Hisar road in Fatehabad and at Nathusari Chopta village in Sirsa. Bus and rail traffic had also remained paralysed in Sirsa and Fatehabad districts.

In Kaithal, the Jats had blocked traffic on NH-65 for over three hours and later set a Haryana Roadways bus on fire near Peoda. 

Yamunanagar, November 28
Kumari Selja, Union Minister, Housing and Poverty Alleviation, inaugurated a seminar on “Knowledge and Professional Services” at Shree Siddhivinayak Group of Institutions, Shahpur-Bilaspur, near here, today.

Dr MK Sehgal, chairman of the institute, presented Abhinandan Patra to the the moinister, who inaugurated a boys’ hostel on the campus.

Speakers at the seminar emphasised on developing managerial and entrepreneurship skills in budding engineers and managers to help them get a proper place in the highly competitive international arena in the next decade.

Kumari Selja said a number of professional and technical institutions in the region had come up in the region in the past 5 years or so, but Shree Siddhivinayak was qualitatively different. She spoke on the road map to 2020 and plans for achieving 9 to 10 per cent growth in the GDP. She released Placement Brochure-2011. Meritorious students Sanjana Bhutanti, Gauri Bajaj, Sakhshi Gandhi, Gagandeep Kaur were honoured for their outstanding performance. Chaudhry Ishwar Singh, Member of Parliament, presided over the function. Delivering the keynote address, Prof Dinesh Aggarwal, Director, UIET, Kurukshetra, gave an overview of professional services in the world. Experts and resource persons from different states, including Dr S Patnaik, Dr Navneet Khetarpal, Dr Rakesh Kumar, Dr Mayak Dave, Dr Vikesh Kumar and Dr Ashish Kumar from the NIT, Kurukshetra, spoke at various technical sessions.

More than 300 delegates attended the seminar.

The Director-general, Dr Rajni Sehgal, said for overall growth of any economy, continuous development and improvement was a must. Prof Sheetal Sharma (Dean), Raman Khanna, additional director, Prof RC Sharma, joint director, Dr JP Goel, Prof Ajay Sidana and faculty members from 50 institutions were among those present. 

Karnal, November 28
Theatre artistes in the state today decided to get together under the banner of the Theatre Artistes Welfare Association to fight for a better deal.

The artistes, who converged here from all over the state, demanded a natya academy to give a boost to theatre and introduction of theatre, music and drama as subjects in educational institutions.

Upset over the “indifferent” attitude of the government towards their plight, the newly formed federation members demanded financial support and other facilities and urged the government to involve them in various social campaigns like those against female foeticide and honour killings.

They also wanted participation in other campaigns on government programmes and policies since they could strike an instant rapport with the people.

In an appeal Sanjeev Lakhanpal, director, Sarthak Kala Manch, who convened the meeting, said that “rangshala” should be set up in every district and these should be managed by theatre artistes and not government functionaries.

The government should see theatre as a partner in propagation and promotion of government programmes and polices and give due patronage to artistes, especially folk artistes, who had direct link with rural people.

The federation decided to present a memorandum to the government through the deputy commissioners of respective districts to highlight the demands.

Panipat, November 28
The Haryana Pradesh Chamar Sangharsh Samiti, which held a rally here today, said that sub-categorisation of Schedule Castes in the state by the then Chief Minister Bhajan Lal in 1994 continued to ail the social fabric till date.

Addressing an impressive gathering of the community members, who had gathered here from across the state, state president of the committee Gaje Singh Muwal said the vote bank politics followed by the state politicians had divided the SCs in Haryana. He said the Punjab and Haryana High Court had ruled against the sub-categorisation of the SCs in 2006, but the state government had moved the apex court against the decision. This, he said, showed that even the present government wanted to prolong the matter to gain political mileage.

He demanded that their community be given a fair deal in the state and the government implement the 85th Amendment made in 1995.

Besides, the samiti demanded that the state should constitute a commission for SCs and ensure reservation in private undertakings.

Sirsa, November 28
Sirsa MP Ashok Tanwar said today the Union Government was committed to the United Nations Convention on Rights of the Persons with Disabilities and efforts were on in this direction.

He said the objective of the UN convention was to promote, protect and ensure equal human rights and fundamental freedoms to all persons with disabilities, and to promote respect for their inherent dignity.

Tanwar was addressing people at the concluding ceremony of “Badhte Kadam”, a campaign of the National Trust to create awareness among people for special children.

The function was organised by Disha, a centre for special children in the town.

The MP said the UN convention aimed at respect for inherent dignity, individual autonomy, including the freedom to make one’s own choices, and independence of differently-abled persons.

Geeta Kathuria, director of Disha, said under the “Badhte Kadam” campaign, a countrywide drive was launched from New Delhi on November 16. The responsibility to carry out this campaign in Haryana was entrusted to Disha, which was also the state nodal agency of the National Trust, she added.

Under the campaign, awareness rallies and seminars were organised at Fatehabad, Hisar, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Rewari, Sohna, Ambala and Yamunanagar. Tanwar announced a grant of Rs 3 lakh for the NGO from his MP Local Area Development Fund.

Special children and differently-abled persons performed a variety of cultural items during the function.

Sonepat, November 28
District revenue officials were yesterday pulled up by Deputy Commissioner Ajit Joshi for adopting a neglecting attitude in the completion of records and causing unnecessary delay in entertaining public requests in tehsil offices.

Presiding over a meeting here, the DC asked the Sonepat Tehsildar and the Naib Tehsildar why their court work and mutations were not online.

He directed the SDMs concerned to make sure that the documents submitted for registration were returned to the applicant after registration the same day. He also asked them to carry out inspection of tehsils at least once in six months to see that the public was not harassed by delays in tehsil offices.

He also directed the SDMs and Tehsildars to hold courts on Saturdays and complete their court work. 

Panipat, November 28
Engineers of the Haryana power utilities are sore over the appointment of retired chief engineers to posts of director of the utilities after ignoring in-service engineers.

RS Dahiya, president of the association, said retirees were being appointed at the cost of promotional prospects of serving engineers and the move had not gone down well with members of the association. He said not only were appointments being made to dismay the engineers, the directors were also being given extension, which had demoralised power men.

Citing an example, Dahiya said recently a proposal had been moved to give further extension to the Director (Technical) of the HVPN, who had already served one year beyond retirement and whose one-year extension period was ending on November 30. He alleged that the proposal had been moved purely on political basis and was unjustified on technical or administrative grounds.

He said a number of chief engineers were eligible for this post but were being ignored to benefit the serving Director.

Dahiya said the association had demanded that Director-level posts should be filled through the selection process from among serving chief engineers of the power utility, on the “time-tested” principle of seniority-cum-merit. 

Karnal, November 28
Three labourers, including two brothers, reportedly died due to asphyxia while they were asleep in their house at Jalmana village in Assandh last night.

The victims have been identified as Nand Kishore (32), his brother Arjun Singh (28), residents of Sukh Mahuva village in Uttar Pradesh, and Dinesh (25) of Bhavani Pur village in Bihar.

They were living in a rented house.

Sources said there was no electricity due to which they had lighted a candle. They fell asleep and the lit candle resulted in a small fire that somehow burnt a TV set, following which smoke filled the house. This woke them up and they tried to come out of the house, but smoke choked their breath and they died of asphyxia.

The bodies of the victims were spotted by a truck driver, Major Singh, of the same village who happened to pass through the area at midnight and saw smoke billowing out of the house. He stopped and informed the landlord, Sahib Singh, about the incident, who went to the room and found the labourers dead following which the police was informed.

The police and an FSL team reached the spot and the bodies were sent to the Civil Hospital, Assandh, for postmortem.

Dr Renu Sharma and Dr Arun Bhati, who examined the bodies, said preliminary investigations revealed that the labourers were suffocated to death due to smoke.