H A R Y A N A   E D I T I O N

State to set up child rights commission
New Delhi, June 5
Seven years after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act was passed by Parliament with the idea that the states will follow suit, the Haryana Government has finally decided to set up a state child rights commission.

Haryana Education Minister Geeta Bhukkal (left) at the State Education Ministers’ conference in Delhi on Tuesday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui

Former Haryana minister Lachhman Dass Arora dead
Sirsa, June 5
Former Haryana minister and senior Congress leader Lachhman Dass Arora died of a protracted illness in a private hospital here today. He was 79 and he had not been keeping good health for the past some years. He is survived by his wife and five daughters.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda pays tributes to former Haryana minister Lachhman Dass Arora (inset), who passed away in Sirsa on Tuesday. A Tribune photo

Lokayukta marks inquiry against ex-Speaker
Panipat, June 5
Following a complaint filed by a local farmer against a former Speaker of the Haryana Assembly for amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income, the state Lokayukta has asked the Financial Commissioner to look into the allegations and submit a report within 45 days.

MDU Hindi-medium students given question paper in English
Rohtak, June 5
A row seems to have erupted over the language adopted in the exams of the master’s degree courses of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here. Some of the Hindi-medium students of the master’s of library science course have alleged that they were handed over the question paper in English language, causing them problems in attempting the paper held on Monday.

Maruti sets tougher environment targets
Gurgaon, June 5
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) released its extensive environment strategy to bring down emissions of its operations and reduce greenhouse emission of its vehicles to mark the World Environment Day here today.

Yogesh tops vet entrance result
Hisar, June 5
Yogesh topped the entrance test conducted by the Lala Latpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences here for admission to the BVSc course, scoring 83.5 per cent marks.

Youth gunned down in Jhajjar
Jhajjar, June 5
Manoj (24) of Khachrauli village was gunned down near Birohad village in this district today. The incident took place when Manoj along with his wife, Pooja, and a friend, Narender, was returning to his native village from Jhajjar town in an Alto car.

Police recovers kidnapped boy
Panipat, June 5
The police has recovered Shubham (4), who was kidnapped from Ashok Vihar here on May 21, from slums near the Ghaziabad railway station, district police chief KK Rao said. He was later handed over to his family here.

Woman killed, 30 hurt in road mishap
Sonepat, June 5
An aged woman, Madina of Ahmedabad, died on the spot and 30 others were injured, 12 of them seriously, when a tourist bus from Ahmedabad collided with a container parked on the GT Road near Bahalgarh early today.

6 rounded up in Hisar
Hisar, June 5
The police today rounded up six persons when they staged a demonstration here in support of the Dalit families of Bhagana village, near here, who have been camping outside the Mini-Secretariat here for the past several days in protest against the erection of a wall around their houses in the village.

State to set up child rights commission
Rohtak admn told to withdraw medals given to Rohtak children’s home owner
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 5
Seven years after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act was passed by Parliament with the idea that the states will follow suit, the Haryana Government has finally decided to set up a state child rights commission.

The decision comes in the wake of recent exposes by The Tribune involving brutal sexual assault of children housed in protection homes across the state. Most such homes in Haryana are unregistered though the government has now asked them to get registered under the Juvenile Justice Act by June 30.

Speaking to The Tribune today, Women and Child Development Minister, Haryana, Geeta Bhukkal, said the state government had decided to set up a child rights commission finally. “The decision has been taken in principle. The need was being felt. We will soon complete the processes required to set it up,” she said on the sidelines of the State Education Ministers Conference in New Delhi today.

The move follows two recent cases where owners of child protection homes were found abusing children in their custody. The first case related to Superna Ka Angan in Gurgaon, where three minors were raped by the caretaker of the home allegedly with the full knowledge of the owner of the home.

Soon after, a Rohtak shelter home for children run by one Jaswanti was raided by a team of the National Child Protection Commission which found that girls here had been systematically tortured and abused physically and sexually. Jaswanti and her co-owners were later arrested.

The NCPCR had been repeatedly writing to Haryana to set up a state child rights commission to ensure proper monitoring of child rights issues. But the state had been dodging the urgency.

Following The Tribune reports on Gurgaon and Rohtak cases, a PIL was filed recently in the Punjab and Haryana High Court which issued notices to the state in this respect.

More recently, children rescued from another child protection home in Gurgaon - Drone Foundation - were found to have gone missing from the Rohtak home where they were supposed to have been lodged according to files. The NCPCR raided the Rohtak home after they discovered these children in Delhi.

Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab are among the few states that have not established Child Rights Commissions.

Former Haryana minister Lachhman Dass Arora dead
Sushil Manav/TNS

Sirsa, June 5
Former Haryana minister and senior Congress leader Lachhman Dass Arora died of a protracted illness in a private hospital here today. He was 79 and he had not been keeping good health for the past some years. He is survived by his wife and five daughters.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Haryana ministers Capt Ajay Singh Yadav and Gopal Kanda, MP Ashok Tanwar, former ministers Ranjit Singh and Jagdish Nehra, INLD leader Ajay Singh Chautala, former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan and several other prominent leaders attended the funeral of the former minister.

Born on October 13, 1932, in Sangha village of Mansa in Punjab, Arora represented Sirsa in the state Assembly in 1967, 1982, 1991, 2000 and 2005.

Before getting elected to the State Legislative Assembly, Arora had held many prestigious posts such as president of the municipal committee, Sirsa, in 1963, president of Arorvansh Sabha, Haryana, and president of the Brick-Kiln Owners Association, Sirsa.

In a condolence message, Hooda described Lachhman Dass Arora as a great social worker who worked to eradicate social evils from society, especially the dowry system.

He said as a minister, Arora had held many important portfolios like Technical Education, Tourism, Sports, Revenue, Consolidation, Rehabilitation, Forest, Home, Local Government, Tourism and Housing and Industries, Mines and Geology and Excise and Taxation and Urban Development.

Other Haryana leaders like Om Prakash Chautala and Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana mourned Arora’s death.

Lokayukta marks inquiry against ex-Speaker
Amassing wealth beyond known sources of income
Manish Sirhindi
Tribune News Service

Panipat, June 5
Following a complaint filed by a local farmer against a former Speaker of the Haryana Assembly for amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income, the state Lokayukta has asked the Financial Commissioner to look into the allegations and submit a report within 45 days.

Sandeep Singh, a resident of Ugrakheri village in the district, had filed a detailed affidavit with the Lokayukta, alleging that a former Speaker of the Haryana Assembly and INLD legislator, Satbir Kadyan, had amassed wealth beyond his known sources of income. In the affidavit submitted to the Lokayukta on April 5, Sandeep claimed that Kadyan had amassed wealth and property during his stint as the Speaker.

The complainant, who claimed to be a distant relative of Satbir Kadyan, said he was earlier close to Satbir Kadyan but when he got to know that Kadyan had used unfair means to amass wealth, he decided to approach the state Lokayukta. He alleged that Kadyan had bought property worth over Rs 100 crore, including agricultural land in UP, residential plots, a filling station and a resort.

After receiving the complaint, the state Lokayukta issued a letter to the Financial Commissioner, asking him to look into the allegations and submit a report within 45 days.

Meanwhile, Satbir Kadyan refused comment on the allegations.

MDU Hindi-medium students given question paper in English
Bijendra Ahlawat
Tribune News Service

Rohtak, June 5
A row seems to have erupted over the language adopted in the exams of the master’s degree courses of Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here. Some of the Hindi-medium students of the master’s of library science course have alleged that they were handed over the question paper in English language, causing them problems in attempting the paper held on Monday.

Authorities of the Examination Department of the MDU claim, however, that no complaint has been lodged with so far.

Some of the students enrolled in the course, Sandeep, Sajjan, Dharmender, Ravi Kumar and Parvinder, claimed that though they had clearly mentioned their choice of language as Hindi in the admission and the examination forms, they were surprised that the paper held on Monday was in the English language.

They claimed that they took up the matter with invigilators, but they were told that the question paper supplied by the Examination Department of the university was only in English.

They faced a lot of problems in attempting the paper as they had to take the help of invigilators with regard to language, though the medium of answers was Hindi, they added.

The complainants said the authorities failed to comply with the rule that all question papers ought to be published in English and Hindi languages simultaneously.

The exam centre superintendent expressed helplessness in the matter. A delegation of students had reportedly met the university authorities on June 1 when the first paper of the subject was held in the English medium. The authorities had assured the delegation that the mistake would not be repeated.

The Controller of Examinations, BS Sindhu, claimed that he had not received any complaint in this regard so far. The authorities would consider the matter if a complaint was received, he added.

Maruti sets tougher environment targets

Gurgaon, June 5
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) released its extensive environment strategy to bring down emissions of its operations and reduce greenhouse emission of its vehicles to mark the World Environment Day here today.

Shinzo Nakanishi, MD, said the broad components of the environment approach adopted at the company include ensuring lower carbon footprint in manufacturing operations; identifying, adopting and investing in new environment-friendly technologies; bringing down carbon footprint of its vehicles by enhancing fuel efficiency; and working closely with the government to formulate environment-friendly policies to curb greenhouse gas emission.

The company’s approach to bring down carbon footprint of its manufacturing operations through constant innovation had brought considerable results in the recent past. — TNS

Yogesh tops vet entrance result
Tribune News Service

Hisar, June 5
Yogesh topped the entrance test conducted by the Lala Latpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences here for admission to the BVSc course, scoring 83.5 per cent marks.

The university stated here that the lowest score in the test was 21 per cent. A total of 2,546 candidates took the test yesterday. The result was declared last night. Priya with a score of 158 out of 200 stood first among girls.

The result is available on university’s web site llruvas.edu.in Counselling for admission would be held on June 18 at Veterinary Auditorium here. Original documents will be checked on that day followed by a medical examination. The successful candidates will have to deposit the fee the same day.

Youth gunned down in Jhajjar
Ravinder Saini

Jhajjar, June 5
Manoj (24) of Khachrauli village was gunned down near Birohad village in this district today. The incident took place when Manoj along with his wife, Pooja, and a friend, Narender, was returning to his native village from Jhajjar town in an Alto car.

As they reached near a temple adjacent to Birohad village, the car was waylaid by another car, the police said: “Some youths armed with revolvers got down from the car and fired at Manoj from close range. Manoj died on the spot. The assailants sped away in the same car.

Jhajjar SP Patram Singh along with other police officers rushed to the spot and sent the body to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem examination. Later, a team of forensic experts also visited the spot and collected blood samples.

The deceased’s wife and friend were being interrogated to get a clue to the killers. The police has registered a case of murder on the complaint of the deceased’s wife, Pooja.

Police recovers kidnapped boy
Tribune News Service

Panipat, June 5
The police has recovered Shubham (4), who was kidnapped from Ashok Vihar here on May 21, from slums near the Ghaziabad railway station, district police chief KK Rao said. He was later handed over to his family here.

The boy was traced on the basis of information given by three kidnappers, Rahul, Vijay and Sant Lal, who were arrested from the local Kutani road on May 31.

The kidnappers had contacted the boy’s family on May 24 and demanded a ransom of Rs 15 lakh. However, given his economic condition his father expressed his inability to pay the ransom and instead informed the police.

The police has booked the three kidnappers .

Woman killed, 30 hurt in road mishap
Our Correspondent

Sonepat, June 5
An aged woman, Madina of Ahmedabad, died on the spot and 30 others were injured, 12 of them seriously, when a tourist bus from Ahmedabad collided with a container parked on the GT Road near Bahalgarh early today.

Those injured seriously were referred to Delhi by doctors in the local Civil Hospital while others were discharged after first aid.

The police has booked the container driver who fled the spot after the accident.

About 80 tourists from Ahmedbad were returning to Delhi in a private bus after visiting tourist and religious places in Haryana, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal and Uttrakhand.

Some bus passengers told mediapersons that the bus driver, who was under the influence of liquor, was asked not to drive the vehicle but he did not care.

6 rounded up in Hisar

Hisar, June 5
The police today rounded up six persons when they staged a demonstration here in support of the Dalit families of Bhagana village, near here, who have been camping outside the Mini-Secretariat here for the past several days in protest against the erection of a wall around their houses in the village.

The protestors set afire an effigy of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The police intervened but the crowd resisted it forcefully. The police rounded up six of them after which they dispersed. — TNS