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HC to examine probe against Rathore
Congress reacts sharply to Chautala’s allegations
Haryana defends leasing land to Rajiv Gandhi Trust
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Ratia a trailor of Punjab Assembly poll: Surjewala
Farmer awards announced
CITU for action against Maruti
Youth, cousin commit suicide in Panipat hotel
Rape accused remanded in judicial custody
Accidental firing at wedding kills 1
Cylinder blast at dhaba leaves one dead, 3 hurt
Protest against house tax reimposition
Dearness relief up for ex-MLAs
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HC to examine probe against Rathore
Chandigarh, December 6 As the petition filed in public interest for a comprehensive probe into the entire incident came up for hearing this morning, Justice Jasbir Singh and Justice Sabina of the High Court called for compliance of its earlier order dated March 15, asking the CBI and the State of Haryana to place the necessary documents before the court, including Rathore’s promotion and the inquiry against him. The case will now come up for hearing on January 17. It was adjourned after Haryana sought additional time for complying with the court orders. The Bench had, in fact, asked for the inquiry report by Rathore’s immediate superior, then DGP R.R. Singh; the promotion file showing the stages and the ways in which Rathore was elevated; and the inquiry report on Ruchika’s expulsion from school. The inquiry conducted by RR Singh had indicted Rathore of molesting Ruchika in 1990. The inquiry report was submitted on September 3, 1990. Rathore, who retired as director-general of police, was promoted even though he was facing allegations of molestation by his daughter’s class fellow Ruchika Girhotra. Rathore, 69, convicted of molesting Ruchika, is currently out on bail. He was sent to jail in May 25 last. The CBI, having failed to gather any concrete proof against Rathore, had on November 10 last submitted a closure report before a court in Ambala pertaining to two FIRs against Rathore on December 29, 2009. Chandigarh-based World Human Rights Council, through chairman-cum-advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal, had earlier sought directions for an independent probe in the Ruchika case, right from the day she was molested till the final decision of the case. The petitioner also sought appropriate action against all officers siding with Rathore, enabling the trial to continue for 19 years. |
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Congress reacts sharply to Chautala’s allegations
Chandigarh, December 6 The Congress had won the Ratia seat after 29 years by defeating the INLD convincingly. Terming the allegation as “absurd” and “born out of frustration”, the Congress leaders said Chautala had insulted the voters of Ratia by terming them as dishonest. In a statement issued from the PGI here, where he is undergoing treatment, Mullana said the words of morality from Chautala sounded strange as he along with his sons was facing corruption charges in a court of law. The defeat of the INLD candidates in the recent byelections particularly in Ratia had frustrated Chautala so much so that he was making such baseless statements. Haryana Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said unable to digest the humiliating defeat of his party in Ratia and Adampur, Chautala was making baseless allegations. Chautala had disrespected the electorate of not only Ratia, but of entire Haryana. The INLD leader should seek public apology for describing the voters as being dishonest. Surjewala said the voters of Haryana were very intelligent and nobody could purchase their franchise at any cost. He said Chautala should have alleged the misuse of official machinery and purchasing of votes before the announcement of the election results. Chautala’s attempt to describe the voters as being dishonest was highly objectionable and shameful, which should be condemned by all right-thinking people. Seeking a public apology from Chautala, senior Congress leader and Nalwa MLA Sampat Singh said Chautala’s allegations proved that he was not able to digest his sixth consecutive defeat. The allegations only reflected the “feudalistic and dictatorial attitude” of the INLD leadership and the people would teach a suitable lesson to it in the next elections. Sampat Singh said had the HJC helped the Congress, the BJP-HJC candidate in Ratia would not have reached 18,000 from 8,800 votes polled in 2009. The BJP-HJC candidate won from the Lalwas, the village of Bhajan Lal’s in-laws, the INLD was second whereas the Congress remained at the third place in that village. Had there been any understanding or fixing, the Congress would have certainly won from that village. The Congress got support from all communities, regions as it won in 125 booths out of a total of 188 booths. He said on the contrary, Chautala and Kuldeep Bishnoi had an understanding as Bishnoi won from Darauli, the village of in-laws of Ajay Chautala, whereas the latter had won from there in the last Hisar Lok Sabha
byelection. |
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Haryana defends leasing land to Rajiv Gandhi Trust
Chandigarh, December 6 In a reply placed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Special Secretary, Town and Country Planning, TC Gupta, said the Trust had been giving lease amount running into lakhs of rupees to the gram panchayat. Claiming that the land was barren, Gupta said the petition had not even been filed in public interest. Elaborating, he said Ullawas village comprised more than 2,000 persons. The present writ was filed by just six, indicating that the petition was not in public interest. The case will now come up for further hearing on February 8. The reply added that the terms and conditions of lease say the Trust and a society there were required to provide employment to local residents, as well as free medical facilities to the weaker sections of society. The reply further added the gram panchayat was annually getting lease amount of Rs 3 lakh per acre from the Trust. In fact, the gram panchayat received lease money amount to Rs 3,37,500 on July 9, 2009, and another Rs 3,37,500 on June 30, 2010, from Church Gate Medical Society. In their petition, Dharamvir and five other villagers had earlier challenged the government’s decision to allot around five acre to the RGCT run by the Gandhi family. A challenge was also thrown on the allotment of nine kanals to another trust -— Church Gate Medical Society. The petitioners contended the government allotted land to RGCT with the sole purpose of pleasing the Trust. They had also sought directions to quash the December 6, 2010, orders vide which the land was directed to be released from acquisition despite issuance of notification under Sections 4 and 6 of the Land Acquisition Act to facilitate
RGCT. |
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Scheme for pregnant women fails to deliver in Mewat
Mewat, December 6 The Rashtriya Janani-Shishu Suraksha Karyakram, which came under the National Rural Health Mission, provided for institutional deliveries, including the required treatment, pick-and-drop facility, health check-up and tests, medicines, blood and diet for the woman as well as the newborn at
government hospitals free of cost. However, six months after the scheme was launched from Mewat, there is not even a single gynaecologist at any
government hospital or other health facility in the district. In the absence of a gynaecologist, the deliveries are being conducted by nurses or multi-purpose health workers (MPHWs). The cases which cannot be handled at their level are referred to the government hospitals at Gurgaon or other places. The single Health Control Room number provided for calling an ambulance - 9254333102 - remains busy most of the time - a fact put across by callers and confirmed by this correspondent. On being probed why a simple three-digit number - like 102 - could not be provided and kept operational for ambulance service, an even more startling fact came to light. Sources in the Health Department maintained that all landline phone numbers at the General Hospital, Mandi Khera, had been lying dead for the past more than two years. Miraculously, the phones started working on the day of Sonia Gandhi’s visit to the place, but went non-functional a few days later. The hospital authorities’ repeated requests in this regard prior to as well as after Sonia’s visit have fallen on deaf ears. Ironically, the monetary incentive provided by the Union Government on the birth of a child in a Scheduled Caste/BPL family is not being distributed as the grant has not arrived in the past few months. For record sake, the district has got a general hospital, three community health centres, 13 primary health centres, 84 health sub-centres and several delivery huts, but none of these has any gynaecologist, radiologist or pathologist. Due to lack of a pathologist, a blood bank has not been established at the General Hospital at Mandi Khera despite the infrastructure being available. Of the 84 health sub-centres, 29 have no buildings or are functioning from other buildings due to their own buildings being in a dilapidated condition. Even the General Hospital is functioning from the building of Al-Afia Hospital, which was built with financial aid from Oman. The hospital also lacks medical specialists and other staffers and more than half of the 564 sanctioned posts are lying vacant. To give the government its due, it recruited 138 doctors, including some specialists, around three years ago. However, less than half of the appointed ones joined duty in Mewat and of even those who joined, 28 have left despite lucrative incentives being offered for being posted here. The Nuh Civil Surgeon, Dr KS Rao, admits the shortage of specialists and other hospital staffers. He, however, asserted that staffers were being recruited on contract basis. “Two male doctors are being trained to provide emergency obstetric care at the General Hospital,” he added, but refuted complaints regarding the number of ambulance vehicles being low to cater to the local population or control room telephone number remaining unapproachable. |
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Ratia a trailor of Punjab Assembly poll: Surjewala
Kaithal , December 6 Addressing a press conference here , he pooh-poohed Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for having demanded the resignation of Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda after the Hisar byelection. “It is time for Badal to pack his bags,” he quipped. Surjewala said that the decisive victory of the Congress party in Ratia and the substantial increase in its share of votes in the Adampur Assembly bypoll proved that people had rejected the politics of regionalism and casteism being pursued by opposition parties. “The election result has showed that the mood of the electorate is clearly in favour of the Congress,” he added. He said though the BJP-HJC alliance had won the Hisar Lok Sabha bypoll in October, the political atmosphere had been vitiated and the results did not present a true picture of the electorate’s psyche. The Ratia and Adampur bypoll results had exposed the false claims made by the BJP-HJC alliance and the INLD during the Hisar byelection. The Congress won the Ratia seat by defeating the INLD candidate with a huge margin of 12,700 votes and the alliance candidate had forfeited his security deposit. In Adampur, there was a substantial increase in the vote share of the Congress as compared to the votes it received there during the Lok Sabha poll. Shamsher Singh Surjewala, president of the All-India Kisan Khet Majdoor Congress, was among those present. |
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Farmer awards announced
Jind, December 6 Announcing this, a spokesperson for the government said here today that state and district-level committees had been set up to invite applications and screen the applicants for these awards. The selection would be done from among those candidates who had made a mark in their respective field. The fields from which the selections would be made include traditional agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, use and development of the biogas system, use of newer and modern techniques, and the cultivation of new and additional varieties of crops. The awards would be provided under the Atma Yojana, which aimed at promoting the agricultural sector. According to him, while the state and district-level awards would be given to five farmers each, the block-level awards would be given to at least three farmers in each region. The prize money for the district and block-level awards would be Rs 25,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively. The criteria for selection will be a points system, according to which a farmer desirous of getting chosen must get at least 100 points. The tally will have a maximum of 50 points for the use of innovative and progressive techniques, 20 points each for excellent cattle rearing (farming) and horticultural work and 10 points for commendable fisheries farming. The names of those farmers who get 100 or more points will be forwarded to the state department concerned. |
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CITU for action against Maruti
Chandigarh, December 6 The minister has clearly stated that the act of Maruti Udyog Limited amounts to unfair labour practice according to the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947, Malik said. Stating that the union minister was replying against a starred question on November 28, Malik said the minister maintained that “the labour laws in multinational companies, including Maruti Udyog Limited, are enforced by the respective state government. The Government of Haryana has reported that the management of Maruti’s Manesar plant had imposed a condition of submission of a good-conduct bond by workers for entering the unit as there was reported widespread indiscipline by workers and acts of sabotage and production of defective vehicles. Demanding good-conduct bonds from workers as a precondition before allowing them to resume work is an arbitrary act and it also amounts to unfair labour practice as given in the Fifth Schedule of the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947.” In of this reply, he urged upon the state Labour Minister to take penal action against the management of Maruti Udyog Ltd for this illegal act which resulted in loss of wages to workers. He demanded that the penalty should be either equal to the financial loss sustained by the workers or the workers may be paid back the deducted wages. |
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Youth, cousin commit suicide in Panipat hotel
Panipat, December 6 The two, who had been missing from their respective homes since December 1, had checked in in My India Hotel late last evening. The two were spotted by the hotel staff struggling for their lives on the stairs, following which the matter was reported to the police. The two were taken to the Civil Hospital, where they breathed their last. SHO, city police station, Suresh Kumar said the youth had been identified as Daljit Singh, son of Gurmeet Singh, and the girl as Ramandeep Kaur, daughter of Dalbir Singh. Sources in the police said that preliminary investigations revealed that Daljit had married some other girl recently, but the two intended to marry each other and settle at an unknown place. However, their parents somehow traced them to the said hotel following which the two decided to end their lives. It was learnt that Daljit Singh owned a computer hardware shop in Amritsar while the girl was a student of Class XII. Virender Vij, DSP, said the police was proceeding under Section 174 of the CrPC and the bodies were sent for a post-mortem examination after which these were handed over to their relatives. |
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Rape accused remanded in judicial custody
Rewari, December 6 Prem Singh was today produced in the court of Lokesh Gupta, who remanded him in judicial custody. Police sources said Sajjan was still
at large. Sajjan and Prem, residents of Jatu Lohari village of Bhiwani district, had got the woman and her husband, who too belonged to the above village, employed as labourers at a petrol station under construction, near Kund, on August 30. Subsequently, the duo hatched a plan under which Sajjan sent the woman’s husband on September 1 to a remote place to purchase some masonry tools following which the woman was raped by the two. A case of rape was registered against the accused on the victim’s complaint. |
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Accidental firing at wedding kills 1
Ambala, December 6 According to information, around 300 persons from the bride and groom’s sides were present at the Sunrise marriage palace in Matheri. One of the guests attempted to shoot a bullet in the air from his licensed pistol to celebrate the wedding but lost control of the weapon and the bullet hit the ground. Its splinters hit two guests. Naresh Kumar sustained splinter injuries on his chest and was rushed to the civil hospital at Ambala city, where he was declared dead. Harpal, who also sustained splinter injuries, was sent to the PGI. After the incident, the marriage ceremony was stopped for some time. Later,
the ritual was conducted in a gurdwara. Additional DCP Raj Kumar Walia reached the marriage site. A case has been registered against one person. |
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Cylinder blast at dhaba leaves one dead, 3 hurt
Rohtak, December 6 The blast, resulting in the fire, took place due to a leakage from the gas cylinder kept in the kitchen of the dhaba, according to initial reports. According to the reports, the incident took place when several persons were present at the dhaba and all of a sudden a blast took place and fire engulfed the place. One person, Rinku (24) died on the spot, while three others, including Sachin, son of Mahabir Singh, the owner of the dhaba, got injured. The police has registered
a case. — TNS |
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Protest against house tax reimposition
Sonepat, December 6 Led by the state media incharge of the BJP, Rajiv Jain, the protesters handed over a memorandum to the executive officer of the council, Arvind Bisnoi. It was addressed to the Local Bodies Minister, Haryana, and the main demands included the withdrawal of the house tax recovery notices and cancellation of the taxreimposition. Addressing the protesters, Jain charged the state government with backtracking from its 2007 decision to waive house tax just to get political mileage in the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. The protestors were joined by municipal councillors Manjit Singh, Vimal Kishore, Atul Jain, Vikki Bhardwaj, Ravinder Walecha and other prominent citizens. |
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Dearness relief up for ex-MLAs
Chandigarh, December 6 An official spokesman said here today that this enhancement had been made with effect from July 1, 2011, as in the case of pensioners or family pensioners of the state government.
— TNS |
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Chandigarh, December 6
