Chandigarh, April 27
HJC chief Kuldeep Bishnoi today scored a small victory when Haryana Speaker Kuldeep Sharma rejected an application filed by Health Minister Narender Singh, seeking the deletion of certain paragraphs from Bishnoi’s petition filed against him. Bishnoi has challenged the “merger” of five HJC MLAs with the Congress and sought disqualification of these members under the anti-defection law.

Narender Singh had filed an application before the Speaker, saying that some matter in the petition was “unnecessary, frivolous and tended to delay the fair trial of the case.”

Satya Pal Jain, advocate for Bishnoi, contended that the assertions made by his clients in the paragraphs objected to by Narender Singh were an integral part of the petition.

Appearing for Narender Singh, Harbhagwan Singh argued that every party was entitled to have the case against him presented in an intelligible form, so that “he may not be embarrassed to meet the allegations contained therein.”

Sharma did not find any merit in Narender Singh’s application. He said the paragraphs objected to by the respondent did not tend to delay the case…no evidence is required to be led there on.

Sharma said any request for expunction of a portion of the petition should be made only in exceptional cases. The respondent had failed to point out what prejudice or embarrassment could be caused to him if the portions objected to were retained in the petition. He went on to say that entertaining Narender Singh’s application would cause unnecessary delay in deciding the main case. Now the door has opened for Narender Singh to move a judicial court against the Speaker’s decision. If Narender Singh exercises this option, it is bound to delay the final decision on Bishnoi’s petition seeking disqualification of five former HJC MLAs. 

New Delhi, April 27
Badminton icon Saina Nehwal has been picked up by the Haryana Association — a body of Haryanvis living in the national Capital — to campaign for saving baby girls who are killed before they are born in the Jat land.

Overall, the sex ratio in Haryana’s literate population is as low as 692, even though it has shown an improvement from 617 in 2001.

Nehwal’s vibrant face will appear on huge hoardings which are going to be put up in all district headquarters of Haryana, big towns and villages and national and state highways running through it.

The campaign will carry Nehwal’s appeal on behalf of the unborn baby girls: “Please don’t kill me”. Nehwal belongs to Haryana.

A campaign, “Save the baby girls”, was announced here today by Dr Ajit Singh Sehrawat, former Vice-Chancellor of Devi Ahilya University (Indore), who was elected president of the Haryana Association unopposed on Tuesday. The election took place at Haryana Bhawan. The other office-bearers are: noted journalist RK Hooda (general secretary), Sunil Bisla (secretary) and Deepshikha Dhaiya (treasurer).

Hooda said the story of “national shame” continues for the second decade in a row for Haryana. Provisional census figures for 2011 show that the districts of Jhajjar and Mahendragarh have the lowest child sex ratio in the country.

“There are 18.02 lakh boys under the age of six in Haryana; the number of girls in the same age group is 14.95 lakh. Though the overall child sex ratio has shown an improvement from 819 in 2001 to 830 in 2011, the gains in some districts are offset by a sharp slide in others,” said Hooda.

According to him, the census numbers have shown a noticeable correlation between literacy levels and the child sex ratio in the districts. The ratio has been found to be the highest in districts which have the lowest literacy levels, especially among women. “Hope Nehwal’s appeal will work,” he felt. 

Chandigarh, April 27
Nearly two years after a 15-year-old boy was electrocuted while climbing a tree, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted Rs 3 lakh as compensation to his parents.

Taking up the petition filed by Santosh and another petitioner against Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam Limited and other respondents, Justice Ranjit Singh said: “On August 1, 2009, the petitioners’ son climbed over a blackberry tree in Kakoda village. An 11 kVA electric line was passing through the area, which was touching branches of the tree. On account of the live wire, the current passed through the tree and the child got electrocuted. A daily diary report was registered by the police. The postmortem report said the boy died because of cardiac respiratory failure due to electric shock.

“The petitioners, accordingly, have filed this petition to claim compensation, pleading that their son died because of negligence on the part of the UHBVN.”

Justice Ranjit Singh added that: “I have heard the counsel for the parties. Reference is made to the case of MP Electricity Board versus Shail Kumari, where it is held that the Electricity Board would be liable to pay compensation even in those cases where there was no negligence on the part of the board. That being the legal position, the respondent-board cannot escape liability to pay compensation….

“The writ petition is accordingly allowed and the petitioners are held entitled to a sum of Rs 3,00,000 as compensation. Let the amount be disbursed to the petitioners within a month from the date of receipt of copy of this order. In the event of delay in disbursing the amount, the petitioners shall be entitled to an interest at the rate of 6 per cent per annum from the date it is due to the date of payment.”

Jakhal (Fatehabad), April 27
Radha is a free woman today. She is no more in chains in the dingy room where she was lying for the past five years in her brother’s house in Jakhal village of Fatehabad.

After her plight was highlighted by The Tribune in its columns in a news item, “Lying chained for 5 years, this hapless woman needs medical aid”, several benevolent persons came forward to help her.

After reading the news item, Dr Inderjit Kaur, who heads the All-India Pingalwara Charitable Society that runs pingalwaras for the destitute in five towns of Punjab, directed her staff to bring the woman to their Sangrur branch for her treatment and lodging.

Rajesh Kumar, in charge of the Sangrur branch of pingalwara, today came to Jakhal with his staff and shifted Radha there.

Before this, he met SDM Ashwani Maingi at Tohana for the official formalities.

Maingi deputed tehsildar Om Prakash to accompany Rajesh Kumar to Jakhal village for smooth shifting of the hapless woman to the pingalwara.

Radha’s brother Gurmukh Singh or other members of his family did not offer any resistance to the move and rather happily agreed to shift her to the pingalwara.

However, Radha herself was not ready to go out of her house and agreed only when her brother accompanied her to Sangrur.

“Normally, we admit only destitute persons with none to look after them in our pingalwaras. However, I decided to shift her as a special case because even though she has a brother to look after her, he says he is too poor to provide her treatment,” said Dr Inderjit Kaur.

She said the pingalwara in Sangrur had a capacity to house 200 inmates and they had all kinds of facilities for those living there, including regular medical check-up and treatment.

Earlier, after reading the news story in The Tribune, Maingi sent his naib tehsildar to the victim’s house and ensured that her chains were opened and she was lodged in a room where other members of the family lived.

Radha, in her early thirties, has spent the past five years of her life in subhuman conditions in a dingy room of her brother’s house in chains.

She had been kept in chains in a room meant for animals, where she ate whatever was offered to her and answered the nature’s call in the same room.

Rohtak, April 27
The two-day-old strike by resident doctors of the PGIMS here came to an end following an agreement between the authorities and the doctors’ association last night.

About 800 doctors, who had been on strike since Monday, resumed their duty this morning, resulting in a huge relief for the patients. The PGIMS is the largest government-run medical and referral institute in the state with over 2,000 patients reporting in its OPDs daily. The strike was called off around 11 pm last night after the authorities agreed to the main demands of the doctors, including stepping up security for the staff, especially those deputed in the emergency ward of the hospital, said Dr Gunjan Chaudhary, president of the Resident Doctors’ Association, PGIMS.

However, the demand for sacking the Medical Superintendent had not been accepted.

He said two senior officials looking after security had been relieved off their job till the report of the inquiry committee, probing the assault on a doctor by attendants of a patient on Sunday night, was received.

Meanwhile, the condition of an 18-year-old girl, who was found lying near a rail track in Sonepat on Tuesday morning and was shifted to the hospital, continues to be serious. The girl has been identified as Kajal, a resident of Sonepat. She has been shifted to the ICU ward, said Dr SS Sangwan, Vice-Chancellor of the health university.

Faridabad, April 27
Farmers of Badauli and Prahladpur in the trans-canal area today blocked the Faridabad bypass in protest against a reported move of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) to take possession of their land to set up new sectors.

The land where the new sectors 75, 80 and 81 are to be set up falls in Badauli, Prahladpur and nearby villages.

In a majority of the cases, the government has completed the formalities of land acquisition in the villages. However, in certain cases there is a dispute over the farmers’ land and these are pending in courts.

A large number of farmers have already received compensation. However, some farmers are in touch with the district authorities for a “suitable compensation as part of an out-of-court settlement”.

A word spread in the villages in the forenoon that the district authorities were trying to take possession of the land even as their talks with the farmers were inconclusive.

The villagers took to the streets and blocked the bypass. The SDM, Faridabad, and a police officer of the rank of ACP was rushed to the spot. The two officers reasoned with the farmers following which the protesters relented.

The officers said HUDA was taking possession of the land in the villages not for the new sectors but for setting up peripheral roads in the trans-canal area.

Gurgaon, April 27
With the declaration of the schedule for elections to the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon (MCG), the Haryana Chief Minister and other ministers have been asked to refrain from laying the foundation stone (or inaugurating) any new project as the model code of conduct has come into force.

Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Electoral Officer PC Meena said as per the guidelines of the State Election Commission, only the ongoing works could be continued till the completion of the election process.

The ministers could not release or sanction grants from their discretionary fund or government fund. They could not sanction any scheme till the poll process was completed .

The State Election Commission authorities have stated that they would not hesitate in cancelling the MC elections if any violation of the model code of conduct was detected.

Panipat, April 27
The Urological Society of India (USI) organised a two-day workshop on flexible ureteroscopy at a clinic here today. The workshop was inaugurated by Dr PB Singh, president of the USI, and was attended by over 200 urologists from the country and abroad.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr PB Singh said the treatment of kidney stone had made progress by leaps and bounds over the past four decades. He said flexible ureteroscopy was the latest advent in medical science and it was for the first time in the country that the USI had organised such a workshop.

He lauded the efforts put in by Dr Pawan Gupta, a pioneer of this technique, in popularising flexible ureteroscope.

During the workshop, Dr Pawan Gupta, along with Dr Andreas Gross, an eminent urologist from Germany, conducted a live surgery using the advanced flexible ureteroscope to apprise doctors of this latest technique in the treatment of kidney stone.

Sirsa, April 27
Wannabe teachers appearing for the national eligibility test (NET) and the central teacher eligibility test (CTET) are sore at the clash of dates for the two tests.

The aspirants feel that they will have to miss any one of the two tests this year thereby loosing an opportunity to qualify the test. The NET examination is conducted by the UGC. The UGC has announced to conduct the test on June 26 this year.

Similarly, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also notified to hold CTET for candidates aspiring to become teachers in schools affiliated with the board on June 26. — TNS

Gurgaon, April 27
Former councillor Binder Gujjar was injured while his supporter, Anil Kakran, was killed when some Scorpio-borne assailants opened fire at them from close range here this evening.

According to police sources and eyewitnesses, Gujjar had gone to the old municipal office opposite the local Civil Hospital to obtain a no-dues certificate required to contest the municipal election. He was accompanied by Kakran.

When Gujjar and Kakran were coming out of the office, the assailants, who were supposedly waiting in a Scorpio parked outside, rained bullets on them. The duo tried to save themselves, but they came in the range of fire.

They were rushed to the Civil Hospital, where Kakran was declared dead, while Gujjar was taken to a private multispecialty hospital.

Gujjar, in his late thirties, is a resident of old Gurgaon and was named in several cases of murder and criminal intimidation. He is also a former councillor. Gujjar planned to contest the coming poll to the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and Kakran had reportedly extended support to him.

Though the incident took place while the MCG poll process is on and Gujjar happens to be a prospective candidate, the planned manner in which he and Kakran were shot at indicates greater chances of some old personal/gang rivalry behind the incident.

Joint Commissioner of Police Alok Mittal said special teams had been constituted to nab the assailants and they would soon be behind bars.