Nuh (Mewat), December 18
A leopard was shot dead after it allegedly attacked some farm workers at Lohinga Kalan village in Punhana block of the district today.

According to police sources and eyewitnesses, a leopard attacked Talim, Khurshid and Maqsood of the village, who were working in their fields in the lap of the Aravalli hills this afternoon.

Talim was badly injured in the head, face, neck and torso, while Khurshid and Maqsood were also hurt in the attack.

Villagers came to the rescue of the trio and tried to overpower the leopard with sticks and farm implements. Fearing threat to their lives, some villagers shot the leopard. The injured were rushed to Al-Afia Hospital at Mandi Khera.

Later, District Forest Officer SS Dahiya, along with other administrative and police officials, reached the scene and took possession of the leopard’s carcass. The officials said it seemed that the leopard had strayed from Sariska forests in Rajasthan into the Aravall hills, from where it came down to the village today.

The officials, however, failed to state why no arrangements had been made to ensure the safety of the villagers in the event of such incidents.

Another leopard had strayed into a village in the Ferozepur Jhirka block of the district recently. The villagers had beaten up the leopard and locked in a room after it had attacked them.

Chandigarh, December 18
Found to be paying a lot more towards social security than required, the Haryana Government has decided to set its house in order by rantionalising pensions under its various schemes.

Sources said the brief to the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, Haryana, was to rationalise all schemes and ensure that no person was drawing pension under two heads or more as had been the case so far, brought to light after some beneficiaries were refused pensions under more heads than one.

Maintaining that the pension is only an allowance not aimed at “enriching” the beneficiary, the government is in the process of streamlining pension distribution, including widow, disability and Ladli pensions.

However, the government, the sources say, is particularly concerned about the hefty financial burden under the Old-Age Samman Allowance for senior citizens which is working out to be a very expensive proposition.

This government, in its last term in 2009, had announced a revision in the allowance, hiking the old-age pension from Rs 300 to Rs 500. The government created another slab of a pension - Rs 700 for all those who had been getting it for 10 years, meaning thereby that those above 70 years were eligible for the amount. Further, an annual increase of Rs 50 for only those beneficiaries who would get a monthly pension of Rs 500 was also announced.

However, this clause of an annual increase of Rs 50 per year is learnt to be creating “management problems” in the scheme. From a two-slab scheme, the old-age pension has its beneficiaries spread over five slabs, leading to confusion in its disbursal. Also, this is causing heartburn among the beneficiaries because while those above 70 years are getting Rs 700 after 10 years, the others reach the Rs 700 mark in four years itself.

Considering all this, and also the fact that this proposition is the “most expensive”, the department has suggested alteration in the existing scheme.

In its suggestions to the government, the department has said that the scheme should be revised and should have only two slabs, that of Rs 500 and Rs 700 and any pensioner who has been getting Rs 500 for 10 years should be eligible to get Rs 700.

The other idea is to link the pension with age and give Rs 600 to those who are 65 years and above, Rs 700 for those 70 years and above, Rs 800 to those 80 years and above and so on.

In addition, the department has suggested some changes in the criteria laid down to identify beneficiaries. It has suggested replacing “children of income tax asessee” by “sons of income tax asessees” among others. The recommendation of the department on the modifications is pending government approval.

There are nearly 21 lakh pensioners in Haryana of which 14 lakh are old-age pensioners and 4.49 widow pension beneficiaries. The rest are beneficiaries under the disability pension, Ladli and financial assistance to the destitute schemes.

Sirsa, December 18
A woman, who seems to be in her early twenties, was found murdered here and her body was chopped into pieces.

The police today recovered the head and the two lower limbs of the body from Kanganpur village near here and the torso and the upper two limbs of the woman from a vacant plot near Agarsen Colony.

The woman’s head and lower limbs were found packed in a gunny bag, while the torso and the upper limbs were found packed in a suitcase.

Labourers working under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme at Kanganpur village found the bloodstained bag near the government school of the village today.

They got suspicious and brought the matter to the notice of village sarpanch Gurvinder Singh, who informed the police.

SHO, Sadar police station, Jitender Singh reached there with other cops and on opening the bag he found the head and two legs of a woman.

Later in the afternoon, someone called in the city police station to inform about the suitcase. Jatinder Singh said the body had not been identified yet.

The body has been kept in the mortuary of the general hospital for identification and further investigation.

Karnal, December 18
You don’t have to read kundlis (horoscopes) for match-making. The fingerprints can give a more accurate assessment of the couple’s compatibility.

The Director of the State Crime Record Bureau, Layak Ram Dabas, who conducted a random survey of fingerprints of 500 couples, says his study shows that couples with similar fingerprints are more compatible.

The finger tips have “chakra”(circle), shankh (loop) and padam (arch). The more the number of “chakra”, the greater the compatiblity. For example if the girl has four circles while the boy had three, they would be considered compatible, says Dabas.

The “chakra” on the finger tips are considered a positive sign. Matching horoscopes is a normal practice for finding out the level of compatibility among prospective couples.

An exhaustive study by the Haryana State Crime Record Bureau reveals that there is a definite relationship between fingerprints and criminal tendencies in an individual.

The study closely examined the fingerprints of 3,200 hardcore criminals, whose data was available with the bureau and reached the conclusion that there were four types of signs on the fingers - circles, loops, arch - and those with less than five circles (chakra) on fingers of both hands were more inclined to criminal activities.

The survey revealed that 1,880 out of 3,200 criminals whose fingerprints were examined had less than five rounds (charkas) while 1,320 with more than five rounds were involved in less serious crimes.

Karnal, December 18
It will be a dream come true for 10 underprivileged inmates of MDD Bal Bhawan orphanage in Karnal, who will meet President Pratibha Patil at Rashtrapati Bhawan on her 77th birthday tomorrow.

The inmates, who seldom get an opportunity to even go out of the orphanage, are thrilled at the very thought of going to the national capital and greeting the first citizen of the country.

Excited over the invitation received, the students have designed colourful cards with messages for Patil. They are not aware how much time they will be spending with the President, but they have prepared a welcome and a patriotic song to present before the President.

Founder of Bal Bhawan PR Nath, who is equally enthusiastic, said: “We approached the President and conveyed the desire of the students to meet her, which she readily accepted.”

Four boys and six girls, who are good in academics and co-curricular activities, along with two staff members and three Board members will meet the President tomorrow.

The inmates, who will meet Patil, include civil engineering student Bal Ram, Kanika (BCom), Kevin (BBA), Anuj Kumar, who is pursuing diploma in computers, Vandana and Anju, both Class XII students, Rahul (X), Manju (IX), Poonam (VIII) and six-year-old Class I student Divya.

Chandigarh, December 18
An attempt by educational institutes to get judicial approval for filling vacant seats on their own has failed to find favour with the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Justice Ranjit Singh of the High Court has, in fact, asserted that such directions cannot be issued, while expressing apprehension that the prayer could very well be aimed at an action not legally permissible.

The assertions came on a petition filed by Shri Vaishno Devi Siksha Samiti, Mahendragarh, and another petitioner.

Taking up the matter, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “The petitioner - educational institutions - appear to have made the present approach with a strange prayer.”

Elaborating, Justice Ranjit Singh observed: “The petitioners pray for issuance of mandamus to the state of Haryana and the respondents for permitting them to fill the vacant seats of CPEd (certificate in physical education) courses on their own in colleges run by the petitioner-societies.

“The petitioners have further prayed for direction from this court, allowing them to fill the seats lying vacant in the course in the colleges run by the respective societies either by their own methods or as per the method considered fit by this court”.

In his detailed order pronounced in an open court after hearing detailed arguments, Justice Ranjit Singh asserted: “It is not understood as to how the court can grant permission to the societies like the petitioners to admit students on their own.

“If any law is the basis, such direction need not be sought from the court. It seems that the petitioners are wanting to advance this as a base for doing something, which may not be legally permissible.

“How the court will have any role to issue any such direction is really not understood? No case for issuing any direction, as prayed for, therefore, is made out. The writ petition is accordingly dismissed in limine (at the threshold).”

Karnal, December 18
Karnal Deputy Commissioner Neelam Pradeep Kasni has directed the officers concerned to stop and demolish any unauthorised construction taking place in their jurisdiction and said in case of any laxity the officers would be personally held responsible.

Addressing secretaries of the municipal committee and market committees, she said influential persons were indulging in developing unauthorised colonies and it should be stopped forthwith.

She said illegal construction was going on in Sectors 32 and 33 in Karnal and directed that it must be stopped immediately.

She said in case the officer concerned was reluctant to take action, the SDM, tehsildar or the secretary of the market committee should get the illegal constructions demolished with the help of the police and JCBs.

“The action taken should be visible on the ground and not on files,” she told the officers. She said the licences of property dealers would be examined and action would be taken against developers who indulged in illegal constructions.

She also issued a show-cause notice to a former secretary of the Nissing Municipal Committee for “inaction” during his tenure. She directed the officials to take effective steps to recover the arrears of house tax, development tax and rent.

Chandigarh, December 18
The Punjab and Haryana High Court yesterday reserved orders on a writ petition filed by Haryana Janhit Congress president Kuldeep Bishnoi for disqualifying five MLAs from his party for defection.

Justice Ajay Tewari reserved the orders after hearing arguments in the matter for more than two hours. Appearing on behalf of Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Harmohinder Singh Chatha, his counsel-cum-Additional Solicitor-General of India Mohan Jain quoted apex court judgments to argue that the court could not direct the Speaker to decide the matter within a specified time frame.

Justice Tewari responded by asking whether the Speaker could keep it pending for even five years? The Judge was prima facie of the view that the court was to see how a proposal could be worked out to expedite the matter, rather than quashing the orders vide which the MLAs were admitted to the Congress.

Seeking their disqualification from the membership of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha under the 10th Schedule of the Constitution, Bishnoi had earlier levelled allegation of mala fide against Chatha, accusing him of trying to shield the “defector” MLAs.

The elections to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha were held in October 2009. Six members were elected on the ticket of Haryana Janhit Congress.

However, in November 2009, the five members submitted applications to the Speaker saying the “legislators of the Haryana Janhit Congress had decided to merge the party with the Indian National Congress”. On the same day, the Speaker without issuing a notice to the HJC president, passed two orders accepting the alleged merger.

Fatehabad, December 18
A teenager was killed after he was buried under the debris of a wall at Razabad village here today. The victim, Malkiat Singh (15) was a class IX student in Government School at Bhirdana. He had bunked the school today.

His father Bhagwan Singh had purchased an old house, where labourers were at work to demolish the old structure. Malkiat Singh was standing near a wall that gave way and the debris fell on him. He succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital. — TNS