Chandigarh, July 8
If “anxious” parents are heralding the return of child marriages for a number of reasons, including skewed sex ratio and the rise of inter-caste marriages, charitable organisations too, albeit unknowingly, seem to be partners in the crime.

Their mass-marriage programmes, invariably, end up attracting underage couples and poor families looking for support in marrying off their children. With hardly any verification plan in place during the registration of needy couples, most such “noble causes” end up doing what they should not - solemnising child marriages.

In Panipat, protection officer Rajni Gupta “busted” one such mass marriage programme in March, forcing the organisers to abandon their plan of solemnising 42 marriages in a day. Of the total couples registered with them, only 10 of them, with requisite age proof, “qualified” while the marriages of 32 other couples had to be called off after they were found to be underage following a medical examination.

“Three days before the ceremony, we had warned the organisation to provide us the documents pertaining to the age of the couples. They kept putting it off till the day the mass marriages were scheduled. Finally, we had to assert ourselves and insisted on a medical examination of the couples to arrive at their tentative age. Of the 42 couples, 32 were found to be underage. However, the organisers not only humiliated us for our action but even challenged my authority for asking for the records,” Gupta recalls.

In a similar programme in Sonepat where three charitable organisations had scheduled 23 marriages, seven couples were found to be below the marriageable age. Here, too, the organisation had gone ahead and registered the couples without verifying their age and a medical examination was necessitated to establish their age.

“The charitable organisations are essentially concerned with meeting their “target” and don’t bother with details like verification. On the other hand, the families of the couples are usually interested in pocketing the items given away by the organisations at such functions,” explains Bhanu Gaur, PO, Sonepat.

Meanwhile, charitable organisations have realised that they could be on the wrong side of law for promoting such marriages and have introduced an age verification clause.

“We try our best to ensure that only the “right” couples get selected. A few marriages were called off last time because the couples were underage. We have learnt our lesson and will insist on a medical certificate from the Civil Hospital if no other proof is available,” says Navrattan Chopra, who manages the Ram Sharnam Trust in Sonepat.

Running the Samaj Sewak Samiti, Praladh Goyal says, “We spend nearly Rs 50,000 on a marriage. We don’t want to be doing anything illegal. After the last experience, where all couples had to be put through a medical test before their marriages could be solemnised, we have decided to insist on a school certificate of Class V from the couples now onwards.”

According to the data available with the Women and Child Department, while Panipat has the maximum cases of 34 child marriages this year, 26 marriages have been detected in Sirsa, 24 in Hisar, 15 in Sonepat and 10 in Karnal.

Against 47 detected marriages in 2009, 111 marriages were detected in 2010, while the total number has already increased to 195 in six months.

Sirsa, July 8
The district health authorities have launched an intensive immunisation drive after the detection of a positive case of diphtheria at Singikat Mohalla.The victim, Samir (6), son of a slum dweller, was shifted to a private hospital with a swollen neck. The doctor sent his throat swab to a private diagnostic laboratory, where the child tested positive for diphtheria yesterday.

Diphtheria is a highly contagious disease spread by direct physical contact with infected individuals.

Historically quite common, diphtheria has largely been eradicated from this part of the country through widespread vaccination.

The detection of a diphtheria case has sent the health authorities in a state of tizzy.

“We have shifted the child to Infectious Diseases Hospital, Kingsway Camp, New Delhi, where he will be treated free of cost,” said Dr Viresh Bhushan, deputy civil surgeon (immunisation).

Dr Bhushan said: “Such a case is rarely reported these days.” He said a survey had been conducted in Singikat Mohalla and over 250 children immunised for the diphtheria pertussis and tetanus (DPT) since yesterday.

Panchkula, July 8
Stepping up its tirade against the state government for privatising education in the state, various teachers’ associations gheraoed Shiksha Sadan in Sector 5 here today.

Balbir Singh, president, Haryana Rajikya Adhyapak Sangh, announced that it would hold public awareness rallies in Jind, Kaithal, Hisar, Bhiwani and Jhajjar in the first phase to expose the anti-people policies of the state government.

He said the government was befooling the public by opening government model schools such as Kisan Model School, Police Model School, Arohi Model School and Sanskriti Model School. He said the studies of children studying in old government schools was affected as teachers were being relocated to these model schools and no fresh appointments were being made in the state.

He said the government should not promote private entrepreneurs to set up schools in the state and urged the central and the state governments to spend 6 per cent of the GDP and 30 per cent of the state’s budget, respectively, to provide quality education at cheaper rates to poor. 

Gurgaon, July 8
A state-level convention of all major national and state trade unions organised here today demanded higher wages for industrial workers, effective implementation of labour laws, withdrawal of cases against labourers, provision of housing facility for workers and well-defined set of rules for the labourers of the unorganised sector.

INTUC president and Rajya Sabha MP G Sanjeeva Reddy addressed the convention.

The trade union leaders asserted that in view of the spiraling prices of essential commodities, the minimum salary of the workers should be raised to Rs 15,000 per month. They also demanded that the registration of trade unions should be made smooth and hassle-free and victimisation of industrial workers involved in trade union activities stopped henceforth.

The leaders further maintained that the privatisation of state services in the garb of public-private partnership, outsourcing and the contract system should be stopped in the 
larger interest.

The convention decided to send a seven-point charter of demands to the Haryana Chief Minister and urge him to convene a meeting of all trade unions in 15 days.

“If the state authorities fail to do the needful in the stipulated time, a demand week will be observed from August 8 to 14, following which a statewide agitation 
will be launched,” said Satbir Singh. 

Karnal, July 8
The Delhi-Kalka Shatabdi Express was stranded at Taravari station for 30 minutes this evening after a man was run over by the train there.The Shatabdi Express was about to leave for Ambala when the train driver noticed a body lying on the track. The train remained stranded for half-an-hour and started forward journey after the body was removed from the track. The deceased was identified as Satish. The police has taken the body in its possession.

Panipat: A hoax call that some “inflammable substance” that may cause explosion has been hidden in Paschim Express forced the Railway authorities to stop the train at Panipat station today.

The railway police searched all bogies of the train and also checked the luggage of the passengers.

The train was given the green signal to proceed to Delhi after nearly one and a half hours.

Rohtak, July 8
The death of Nirmala at her parents’ house at Unn village in Bhiwani district recently has left the family of Dharam Chand, an ex-serviceman and father-in-law of the deceased, shattered.

Alleging murder of their daughter-in-law, the family has now decided to pursue the case further.

Dharam Chand told The Tribune here today that he had been seeking legal opinion and would soon lodge a complaint against the girl’s father in this 
matter.

Nirmala’s newly born son also died due to infection after about seven days of her death.

The police, which has been awaiting the viscera report, said no murder case had been registered so far as nobody had lodged a complaint in this regard, though the postmortem report had indicated injuries, leading to the suspicion of murder.

Nirmala, who got married to Takdeer, son of Dharam Chand of Mangal Puri Colony here, had gone to her parental house in May and died on June 17 under mysterious circumstances.

It was said Nirmala could have been married to Takdeer under the ‘atta-satta’ (barter) system through a middleman, who helped Mahavir (Nirmala’s father) to get a bride for one of his sons.

Mahavir may have been infuriated with the broken marriage of his son and this resulted in the return of her married daughter to her family.

While the police was informed about Nirmala’s death by her in-laws, Dharam Chand’s family was persuaded by the local congregation not to go ahead with a police complaint in this regard.

The police had registered a case under Section 174 of the IPC in view of no complaint.

“We have lost not only our daughter-in-law, but also our grandson, who died before our eyes and this has shattered our life,” claimed Dharam Chand.

Chandigarh, July 8
Deveshwar Dayal, HCS, Estate Officer, Sirsa, who was convicted in a corruption case, was today granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.Convicted under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Dayal was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for four years.

The prosecution had alleged Dayal, posted as HUDA’s Estate Officer at Sirsa from May 29, 2001, to January 10, 2002, had committed irregularities, causing a loss of “crores of rupees” to HUDA.

His bail petition filed before Justice Mahesh Grover said the possibility of the matter being an “outcome of long political rivalry cannot be ruled out”.

After hearing the arguments, Justice Grover granted bail to Dayal.