Chandigarh, May 30
Raising illegal constructions in Haryana, which has virtually become an encroachers’ paradise, will soon be a thing of the past. Alarmed at the mushrooming of unauthorised buildings without the sanction of the competent authority, the Haryana Government is set to amend the Municipal Corporation Act by inserting a provision of sealing these buildings without notice.

Taking a cue from New Delhi, where such a provision is reported to have elicited a good response, the new amendment, mooted by the Urban Local Bodies Department would do away with the usual time-consuming procedure of issuing a notice followed by hearing the affected parties.

“Once the Act is amended, the authorities concerned would be able to seal the suspect building even without notice, discouraging the people to construct buildings without sanction,” official sources said. They added that the amendment might be okayed at the forthcoming meeting of the Haryana Cabinet to be presided over by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on June 1.

Currently, the Act has no provision of sealing the suspected premises. In case of any suspected illegal building, a notice is first issued which has to be replied by the owners of buildings within a specified period. Since the authorities cannot stop construction work, the building gets completed during the pendency of the notice period. Sometimes the authorities are helpless as the matter goes to the court, making it difficult for the authorities to act against promoters of such buildings.

In fact, a majority of hundreds of illegal colonies in the state sprung from the ineffectiveness of certain provisions of the current Act which gives no powers to the enforcement staff to seal the suspected premises.

While confirming the proposal, Ram Niwas, Financial Commissioner-cum-Prinicipal Secretary, Urban Local Bodies Department, claimed that the new amendment would go a long way in checking mushrooming of the illegal structures in the state.

HOW Hooda govt favours illegal colonies

The Hooda government’s fascination for the regularisation of around 1,200 illegal colonies is well known. With a view to fulfiling the Chief Minister’s commitment to the people, the beneficient Haryana Government is set to regularise these illegal colonies which came into being by flouting urban planning norms. Even as the state government would find ways and means to regularise these illegal colonies, the amended Act would hopefully curb the practice of erection of illegal structures which mushroom into full-fledged colonies in course of time.

Panipat, May 30
Twin sisters from Panipat have bagged the top slots in the All-India Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (AISSCE) conducted by the CBSE, the results of which were declared nationwide on Monday.

Kshitija Khurana and Reetija Khurana, commerce students of Bal Vikas School, bagged 98 per cent and 97.4 per cent marks, respectively, to finish first and third across the nation. Kshitija secured 490 marks out of 500, while Reetija bagged 487 marks to finsh amongst the top three.

Though there is no concept of toppers in the CBSE Class XII examinations, the school authorities confirmed that the two girls had bagged the top positions by securing the highest marks at the all-India level.

"It is indeed great. We hope this is the beginning and we get more such brilliant students from the region every year," school Principal Ritu Marwaha said. .

Kshitija got 96 marks in English, 97 in accountancy, 98 business studies, 99 in mathematics and 100 out of 100 in painting, which was an additional subject. Her sister Reetija scored 95 marks in English, 96 in accountancy, 97 business studies and 99 in mathematics and 100 in painting.

Both sisters had done their matriculation from the same school and had scored 98.8 per cent marks each.

Buoyed by the success of his daughters, Anil Khurana, who is a chartered accountant, said his daughters had not only performed brilliantly in academics, but they had also performed exceedingly well in the district and state-level table tennis tournaments. He said that both girls also participated in English and Hindi inter-school debate competitions and had won various prizes at the district level. Kshitija also stood first in the school in the maths olympiad and participated at the state level.

Interacting with The Tribune, both sisters said they aimed to appear in competitive exams after completing chartered accountant courses from Delhi University.

Reetija said making their parents proud was the biggest motivation that propelled them to secure high marks.

Hisar, May 30
Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University has issued admit cards to the candidates for the entrance tests scheduled to be held on June 9 for admission to under-graduate and post-graduate courses for the academic year 2012-13.

Stating this today, a spokesman of the university said all candidates who had applied for admission to B.Sc.(hons) agriculture 4-year degree programme and M.Sc. in the disciplines of food science and technology, molecular biology and biotechnology and bioinformatics had been sent admit cards by post. — TNS

Karnal, May 30
Tall claims of the Haryana Government of rendering help and medical aid to AIDS patients notwithstanding, a hapless AIDS patient was not admitted to the government hospital at Gharaunda by the staff on Monday and he was forced to lay on the floor.

“I was lying on the floor, but the hospital authorities refused to admit me and after two hours, a nurse gave me an injection and sent me home,” said the patient, at present admitted to the Care Support Home at Subash Nagar, New Delhi.

There seems to be no end to the miseries of the 38-year-old patient. He has not only lost his job but also lost three children to the dreaded disease and is struggling to save himself, his wife and the fourth child.

The blood count of all his family members, residents of Raipur Jattan in Gharonda, has come down to 300 but he is not in a position to undergo antiretroviral therapy (ART) due to an acute financial crunch.

He is getting free treatment at Deen Dayal Upadhaya Hospital, Delhi, but is unable to bear the sundry expenses he has to incur every time he goes to Delhi as he does not have even a rupee or any source of income.

All the district administration has done for him is to open a bank account in his name and issued an appeal to the people to help out the needy patient by depositing money in his account (1716000102077990) in the Gharaunda branch of Punjab National Bank. However, not a single penny has been deposited in the account during the past two months.

Neither the Red Cross Society nor the AIDS Society have cared to provide any financial help to Om Prakash.

A local NGO, NIFAA, provideed him a cart for selling fruits, but due to frequent visits to Delhi for treatment and his failing health, he is not able to regularly sell the fruits and many a time the fruits rot as he has to suddenly wind up and go for treatment.

He has already incurred a debt of Rs 1.5 lakh. How long he would be able to sustain himself and his two ailing family members is the big question.

Sirsa, May 30
Irked at frequent power cuts, villagers today blocked the Sirsa-Jamal road near Dhukra village for over six hours, causing inconvenience to commuters.

The villagers started assembling at the road at 7 in the morning and they blocked the road by placing barricades.

“We are virtually living without power. Our village is getting electricity for hardly 4 to 5 hours in a day,” alleged villagers Dholu Ram, Harpal Singh and Om Parkash.

Later, a police party from Chopta police station reached there and started diverting the traffic from other routes.

An executive engineer and a sub divisional engineer of the DHBVN came to the dharna site and assured the villagers that their village would get power for at least four hours in the afternoons and seven hours during nights. 

Hisar, May 30
The district continues to reel under severe heat wave conditions as the daytime temperature continued to hover around 45 degrees for the second day today.

Hot winds continued to blow from around noon to late in the evening, forcing the people to stay indoors as far as possible. The roads in the city wore a deserted look noon onwards because of the rise in temperature and hot winds. Several areas of the city are facing water shortage because of increased demand. — TNS

Chandigarh, May 30
The Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice to the Haryana Home Secretary and the State Director-General of Police on a PIL seeking the removal of nine convicted policemen.

The Bench of Acting Chief Justice M.M. Kumar and Justice Alok Singh issued the notice for July 24 on a PIL filed by advocate H.C. Arora. He was seeking directions to the State and other respondents to remove all convicted police officials from service.

The petitioner stated that as per the information received by him under the RTI, nine convicted police officials were still in service. They were ASIs Baldev Singh and Dhir Chand., HC Nafe Singh, HC Mahabir Singh, HC Darshan Singh and constables Jai Phool, Joginder Singh, Noor Mohd and Suresh Kumar. 

Yamunanagar, May 30
Two students — Tarun and Anil — were reportedly feared drowned in the western Yamuna canal near here this noon while one of their colleagues Gagan managed to reach the bank of the canal.

The police and divers have conducted a search operation in the canal but no clue of the students has been found.

The three students of class XII had gone to to take a bath when suddenly the water level of the canal went up and the students were washed away in the current. Gagan informed about the accident.

The search operation was continued till evening. 

Jind, May 30
Four murders in just 48 hours have shocked residents of Jind district.

The first shocking incident took place on Monday night when a couple identified as Dharambir (50) and his wife, Savitri (47), was asleep at their house in the Shyam Nagar locality here. The bodies were found in a pool of blood on Tuesday morning by a kin. Dharambir was a clerk in a private educational institute while his wife was a former sarpanch of Gulkani village in the district.

As the couple was alone in the house, some assailants entered the house around midnight and slaughtered them to death while they were asleep. The limbs and mouth of the victims was tied with a rope and their eyes were dug out with a sharp-edged weapon, suggesting the police that their murder was intentional and not just a case of loot.

Virender, the couple’s son-in-law, found the bodies lying in an open space just outside the bedroom when he went there on Tuesday morning. Police sources said Virender told the police that the door was locked from inside and when broken, the bodies were found in a pool of blood with severe injury marks. The household items were found strewn all around, which suggested that the accused tried to mislead the police about the motive of the murder.

The second murder took place at Bhairon Khera village when a 28-year-old liquor sub-vend contractor Mukesh was shot dead last night when he was sitting at his vend located near the village.

Three armed youths who arrived there around 9.30 pm pumped seven bullets into his body resulting in on the spot death of the victim. The incident appears to be a case of gang war as Mukesh was booked in 13 criminal cases, which include that of murder and attempt to murder. A case has been booked in this connection.

In the third incident, Raunak Lal of Safidon town was hacked to death by a sword by some persons over the dispute related to his candidature for the post of numberdar in the region. Two of the 13 persons booked have been arrested by the police in this regard.

Meanwhile, the police authorities have suspended the SHO of Julana for his failure to arrest the accused of the murder of a school owner who was shot dead at Julana on May 13. 

Karnal, May 30
Trying a replay of famous case of Prof Matuknath of Bihar, who married his own student of half the age three years ago in the teeth of opposition from his wife, a lecturer of Government College, Karnal, has been booked on the charge of molestation and arrested by the police.

A case has been registered against the Prof Ramesh Alahawat on a complaint of the student who alleged that the teacher had been regularly molesting her on one pretext or another and even threatened to kill her. The victim in her complaint alleged that she was molested throughout the year and even after passing out of the college, the objectionable acts of the teacher did not stop.

Fed up with the nuisance created by the teacher, the student took her parents into confidence and reported the matter to the police who has registered a case and arrested Prof Ahlawat.

SHO Civil Lines, Satish Gautam, said Prof Ahlawat would be produced in a court tomorrow for remand. He said the police was investigating the charges against him.

Prof Radhey Shayam Sharma, principal of the college, said strict action would be taken against the teacher if the charges were proved.