Gurgaon, February 3
The crisis being faced by the Indian National Lok Dal after the arrest of Om Prakash Chautala and his son, party general secretary Ajay Singh Chautala, may turn out to be a blessing in disguise for the party.

The party has started mobilising its cadre in an attempt to put up a united face in the wake of the crisis. The long jail term handed to the Chautalas appears to have generated sympathy among party workers and sympathisers.

The good response received at the statewide workers’ meetings being organised by Chautala’s younger son Abhey Singh and INLD state president Ashok Arora indicates that it may be early to write off the “green” party.

The party leadership is using the opportunity to mobilise its members and supporters and boost their morale. “If giving jobs to deserving youth amounts to corruption, we will do it again and again on coming to power,” Abhey said while addressing an open gathering of party men here today.

Inviting the Chief Minister to hold a public debate on the entire episode in which his father and brother have been sentenced to jail, the INLD leader said he would quit politics if the CM was able to prove that the Congress regime did not misuse the CBI to frame them.

Making no effort to hide his intentions, Abhey categorically warned the Hooda regime to be prepared for “facing the consequences of their corrupt practices and misdeeds” after the INLD was voted to power in the state. Earlier, on being asked about Hooda’s statement that the CBI inquiry had been ordered during the NDA regime, Abhey said the names of Ajay and Om Prakash Chautala had been included in the FIR after the UPA regime took over the reins of power at the Centre. He said they had full faith in the judiciary and hoped that his father and brother will get relief from the High Court.

Meanwhile, several local activists from various walks of life, including former District Information and Public Relations Officer (DIPRO) RS Dahiya, joined the INLD in presence of Abhey Chautala, Ashok Arora and other party leaders.

Arora said after holding workers’ meetings at the district headquarters, they would launch a statewide mass-awakening campaign at the ward and village levels to inform people how their leaders were framed by the CBI at the behest of the ruling party.

He also advised HJC president Kuldeep Bishnoi to set his own house (party) in order before commenting on the present/future position of the INLD.

Hisar, February 3
A 20-year-old woman died of swine flu at a private hospital in Hisar yesterday, while another patient has reportedly tested positive for the disease.

The victim, Priya of Lohari Jatan, was being treated at a private hospital in Hisar for the past few days. She died last evening.

Priya’s blood sample was sent for test and the health authorities had received confirmation of H1N1 infection on Friday.

Gulshan (42) of Bhuna in Fatehabad has also tested positive for swine flu, though the health authorities are yet to confirm the same.

Dr Sushil Garg, district nodal officer for swine flu, said he was on leave and was thus not in a position to give any details.

Sources said the health authorities had taken three more samples from patients admitted in various private hospitals and had sent them to Delhi for tests.

Sources said five confirmed cases of swine flu had come to light in Hisar over the past two days. The health authorities distributed Tamiflu tablets to the family members of the patients.

Sirsa, February 3
With the detection of yet another case of swine flu at Mithri village in Sirsa, the total number of confirmed cases of H1N1 virus has gone up to 10 in the district.

Three persons have so far died of the disease though the health authorities maintained that they were yet to receive the test report of the third one.

Kulwant Kaur (53) of Mithri village, who is at present undergoing treatment at the PGI, Chandigarh, was first admitted to a private hospital in Sirsa with symptoms of fever, cough, cold and breathlessness on January 22. Her sample was sent for testing, as she had all symptoms of swine flu.

On January 29, doctors attending on her referred her to the PGI, Chandigarh, in view of her serious condition.

Yesterday, the health authorities received her test report and it was found that she had tested positive for the H1N1 virus.

Teams of the Health Department from the Primary Health Centre, Odhan, conducted a house-to-house survey of 405 households of Mithri village.

“As the family lived in a dhani set up outside the village, no other villager has been found infected with the disease. However, we have given Tamiflu tablets to all five members of her family,” said Dr Bhushan Garg, Senior Medical Officer of the Primary Health Centre.

Deputy Civil Surgeon Dr Viresh Bhushan said so far 18 samples had been sent for testing out of which 10 had been tested positive for swine flu.

The authorities, he said, were still waiting for a report in case of Gopal, who died with symptoms of category “C” of swine flu on Friday.

Faridabad, February 3
Employees of the local Municipal Corporation, who have been on a warpath to press for regularisation of their services, got a shot in the arm with MC Commisssioner D Suresh taking up their cause afresh with the Urban Local Bodies Department.

D Suresh had earlier taken up the issue of regularisaiton of services of 1,036 employees with the department a few months ago.

In a letter to the Principal Secretary, Urban Local Bodies Department, the commissioner said there was no legal or financial hurdles in regularising the employees.

Rather, he assured the government the civic body was in a position to bear the extra financial burden on it. He said the government would be in breach of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution by not regularising the employees as the government had regularised their colleagues about six years ago.

The process to regularise them about six years ago was halted midway by the government on account of a Supreme Court’s ruling with regard a service-related case emanating from Karnataka. It interpreted the judgement to be against its move of regularisation. In fact, the government scrapped its policy then and drafted a new one on the issue. Ironically, the state's new regularisation policy makes the employees ineligible.

Suresh’s missive is in the wake of Haryana Labour Minister Shivcharan Sharma also taking up the employees' cause with the government a few days ago.

Meanwhile, the employees staging an indefinite dharna outside the MCF headquarters under the aegis of the Municipal Corporation Faridabad Employees Federation since January 21 said they would not call off their agitation till their demand was met.

Fatehabad, February 3
The condition of Nidhi Jain (21), who has been sitting on a fast-unto-death outside the mini secretariat against alleged police atrocities after she was subjected to domestic violence by her in-laws has worsened due to the cold weather and the hunger strike.

The woman, who spent Saturday night under the sky with her mother, continued vomiting throughout the night. “I will not end my fast till I get justice for the excesses committed on me by my in-laws and the police, which has been conniving with them from the beginning,” Nidhi said as she lay on the roadside outside the mini secretariat.

SDM, Fatehabad, Baljit Singh, called Nidhi, her uncle Rajinder and mother Darshna to his office and asked her to end her fast on the assurance that she would get justice. However, Nidhi rejected the offer and said she would not end her fast till the police quashed the “false” case registered against her and her two uncles, provided her the right to live in the house of her husband and book her in-laws for allegedly trying to kill her.

The SDM said the authorities were trying to settle the dispute between the woman and her in-laws family.

Meanwhile, Rekha Agarwal, Protection Officer under the Domestic Violence Act said she had already moved an application before the court under Section 20 and 21 of the Act for residence orders and monetary benefits for Nidhi from her in-laws.

Nidhi was allegedly undressed at the Bhattu police station at night last month on the orders of the then SHO Jagdish Kumar. The police allegedly humiliated her a day after she had alleged that her in-laws family had tried to kill her. The police had admitted the stripping by a woman constable and justified the same saying her in-laws family suspected she was carrying poison allegedly to implicate them by committing suicide.

Later, when she began a dharna outside her in-laws house demanding the right to live in their house, the police booked Nidhi and her two uncles under Sections 323, 506 and 294 of the IPC on January 24.

The police arrested Nidhi and her two uncles on the evening of the Republic Day. The three were released on bail the next day and since yesterday; Nidhi started her fast-unto-death.

Gurgaon, February 3
Rakesh alias Raaku, 30, a resident of Baadshahpur village, was allegedly shot dead by an unidentified youth in front of Tau Devi Lal stadium today. The incident has once again highlighted the trigger-friendly culture of the city where the decade-old gang wars seem to be re-surfacing.

Rakesh, who was returning from the gymnasium at the stadium in his car, was reportedly intercepted by the motorcycle-borne accused. The accused got down the motorcycle and shot five bullets at him before fleeing.

An eyewitness reportedly called the police which took the victim to the Medicity Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

While the family is mum about the murder suspects, police sources say the murder may be an outcome of a previous enmity.

“We are talking to the family but they have not revealed much. However, from sources close to the family we have come to know that they know who may be behind the murder. We will get a lead soon,” said a police officer.

Hisar, February 3
The district police today refuted allegations leveled by a couple that the sarpanch of Bithmada village had threatened and asked them to live like siblings after a gotra row.

The couple Jyoti Prakash (25) from Bithmada and Priyanka Rani (20), a resident of Meham, who got married in April last year, had sought protection from the IG, Hisar Range, Arshinder Singh Chawla, yesterday.

Jyoti Prakash had alleged that he had been living in a rented accommodation in a neighbouring village out of fear of attack by the sarpanch and some panchayat members of his village. The couple, belonging to the Dalit community, are cousins.

“I married Priyanka, who belongs to the gotra of my grandmother, in April last year. Since then the panchayat has been threatening us and trying to force us to leave the village. My mother, who has been supporting me, was beaten up leaving her with a fractured arm. When we came to see her yesterday, we too were abused and threatened,” Jyoti Prakash has alleged in his complaint.

Jai Bhagwan, SHO of the Uklana police station, however, said the youth had a dispute with his father over his marriage and the police had already registered FIRs against both sides.

He said Jyoti Prakash was wanted by the police in a case lodged against him on the basis of the complaint of his father Roshan Lal.

He said the police had booked Roshan Lal and some others on the basis of the complaint of his wife (Jyoti’s mother), after her arm was fractured in a domestic fight.

The SHO has denied any role of the sarpanch in the case.

“The sarpanch or the panchayat members have no role in the case. The village panchayat was not convened in the village over the alleged gotra issue,” he said.

Fatehabad, February 3
A female blackbuck was mauled by a pack of stray dogs in the fields of Kajalheri village yesterday.

Villagers rescued the animal from the dogs and called a veterinarian to treat it. The villagers said the blackbuck was experiencing labour pains and was about to deliver when the dogs attacked it in the fields.

The villagers, Vinod, Vakil Singh and sarpanch Hawa Singh, called a veterinarian, who suggested the animal to be shifted to Hisar in view of its serious condition.

The villagers alleged that the stray dogs roaming in the fields had become violent and they had even attacked people besides blackbucks, who roamed freely otherwise in these Bishnoi-dominated villages.

Rohtak, February 3
Brick prices are unlikely to come down even after resumption of production as the strike by brick kiln owners ended. Fresh lot of bricks will be available in the market only in the first week of March.

More than 3,000 brick kilns in the state had been on strike since mid September over the issue of the new rule for obtaining NOC before brick preparation work. The state and the district units of the association had announced a hike in the rate of the bricks from October last.

“The prices of bricks have been hiked between 30 and 45 per cent depending upon the quality of bricks,” a member of the district association said. He said while the bricks which could be graded in four categories have been fetching the price of Rs 3,000 to Rs 5000 per 1000 lot, the best quality stock was priced between Rs 5,000 and Rs 5,500, while the second and third grade stock costs between Rs 4,500 and Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,500, respectively.

Earlier the rate of the best quality or A grade bricks was between Rs 4,000 and Rs 4,500 per lot, but the rates went up after the association announced an indefinite strike in protest against the condition of obtaining NOCs by the state government on the procurement of earth from the fields, a spokesperson of the association said.

Sonepat, February 3
The police has arrested Naveen of Safiabad village for killing his father, Balwan, whose body was recovered from Shahbad dairy in Delhi on January 17.

He was produced in a court today and was taken in police custody for recovery of the arms used in the crime.

It is learnt that Balwan went missing on January 15 and a complaint was lodged in this regard. After recovery of his body, it was identified as of Balwan after a few days.

During investigation, Balwan’s younger brother, Jai Kishan, suspected of Naveen’s involvement in the murder and Naveen was taken into custody by the police for interrogation.

The police said during interrogation, Naveen confessed that he had shot his father with a country-made revolver and threw the body in Shahbad dairy. He said his father was a drunkard and used to indulge in indecent activities with women in the village. — OC

Sonepat, Februay 3
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda launched 11 development projects in the district today. The estimated cost of the projects is Rs 150 crore.

The projects included foundation stones of Rs 27.80 crore worth part-1 of the GT road to Kami road bypass, Rs 47.44 crore railway overbridge at Jind road at Gohana, Rs 13.55 crore building for the government college at Barota near Gohana, Rs 13.94 crore for Government College for Boys building at Pipli village in Kharkhoda, Rs 7.45 crore railway underbridge near Shani Mandir in Sonepat, Rs 14.82 crore project for improvement of the Kharkhoda-Asauda road, construction of Aqueduct at an estimated cost of Rs 3.09 crore and foundation stones of the construction of new house at the DCR University, Murthal, at the cost of Rs 6.76 crore.

The Chief Minister also inaugurated Rs 2.31 crore building of the state after care home at Sonepat, Rs 4.50 crore boys hostel building at Murthal University and Rs 7.94 crore newly constructed building of the ITI at Kharkhoda.

Addressing a public meeting at Pipli village, Hooda chided the INLD leaders for misguiding people on the conviction of the Chautalas and said the conviction was a legal matter and the INLD leaders should spend their energy in settling the matter in court. Instead of calling for a public debate on the matter, they should hire a good advocate to pursue the matter in higher courts,” he said.

He said he was ready for a debate on the issues relating to the development of the state during the INLD rule from 1999 to 2004 and during his government’s tenure since 2005.

“During my tenure, Rs 3,799 crore were spent on various development projects in Sonepat district; whereas only Rs 616 crore were spent during the Om Prakash Chautala government,” he said. Works on other projects costing Rs 917 crore was also going on at different stages.

Commenting on the setting up of an Industrial Model Township near Kharkhoda, he said the government would not set it up if there was opposition by the people. At the same time, people in the gathering responded by raising their hands that they were in favour of the project. The CM assured them the IMT would be set up at the proposed site.

He also announced Rs 1crore for development works in Pipli village and Rs 5 crore for other villages of Kharkhoda area.

Rohtak MP Deepender Singh Hooda, Sonepat MP Jitender Singh Malik, CPS Jaiveer Singh, Political Advisor to CM, Prof Virender also addressed the meeting.

Rewari, February 3
The district police has arrested an alleged trickster Subodh Shah of the Madhopur area in Bihar for attempting to dupe Rinki Devi of her jewellery at Naichana village, near Bawal, yesterday.

He was produced before the Duty Magistrate today, who remanded him in judicial custody.

The police said when Subodh started cleaning Rinki’s gold ornaments with the help of a chemical, Rinki grew suspicious and she with the help of her neighbours, overpowered Subodh who was handed over to the police.

Karnal, February 3
In a landmark judgement, the Haryana State Consumer Court has upheld the decision of District Consumer Forum that an applicant under the Right to Information Act (RTI) becomes a "consumer" after paying the prescribed fee and can approach the consumer court on denial of information by designated the Public Information Officer (PIO) of the organisation.

The District Consumer Forum had passed the order in a case related to information about destroying the record pertaining to recruitment of police inspectors by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) after the information was denied by the PIO of the HSSC and the applicant pleaded that after paying the prescribed fee of Rs 50, "he falls in the category of consumer".

RTI activist Rajesh Sharma had filed an application under the RTI Act on April 29, 2009, seeking information about the date on which record of recruitment was destroyed by the HSSC, the process of destroying the record and the rules under which it was done, but the PIO did not furnish the information within the stipulated period of one-month and even after filing the first appeal and requesting the State Information Commission (SIC), the information was not given.

Finally, Sharma filed the case in the District Consumer Forum, pleading that he was a consumer as he had paid a fee of Rs 50 and forum chairman MM Sharma took congnisance of the complaint and found the PIO guilty of deficient services and fined him Rs 20,000 and also asked him to pay Rs 5,000 as the cost of litigation.

The order was challenged by the PIO in the State Consumer Court which dismissed the plea and asked the PIO to pay the fine. The judgement would have far reaching consequences as erring PIOs would be fined in case they failed to give full information within the prescribed period and there would be more transparency, said Sharma.

Sirsa, February 3
A married woman, who was allegedly molested by a granthi when she was alone in her house, has been running from pillar to post for justice.

The victim, who has already met senior police officers in the district, has written to the DGP seeking the arrest of the accused.

The police had booked the granthi under Sections 354, 323 and 34 of the IPC on January 21 after the woman alleged in her complaint that the accused molested her when she was alone in her house.

The police has not arrested the accused so far. The woman alleged that the police had been conniving with the accused. She alleged that there were already two more criminal cases against the granthi. But the police was soft towards him for unknown reasons.

The woman alleged that the granthi had come to her home to perform some puja to treat her from a disease and sent her husband to bring parshad from the market. She alleged that when her husband went out, the granthi started obscene acts with her.

SSP Raj Shri Singh said the police had booked the granthi on the woman’s complaint and investigations in the case were in progress.

Ambala, February 3
With procurement, planning and system operations taking a hit, Haryana Power Utilities plan to strictly enforce the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission regulations regarding the Short Term Open Access (STOA) System under which heavy industries in the state with load of 1 MW or above are allowed to purchase short term power from open market.

Highly placed sources in the discoms said the present system, besides affecting the overall functioning of the utilities, had also resulted in loss of revenue of more than Rs 300 crore, annually. This resulted in an additional burden of 10 paise to 15 paise per unit on the other 50 lakh consumers of the state. The sources said under the provisions of the Electricity Act of 2003, the heavy industries in the state had been allowed to purchase power from the open market to tide over the shortage of power for which no objection certificate was provided by the Haryana Power Utilities.

However, of late, it was observed that industries buying power through the STOA system were affecting the system operations, procurement and planning of power. It also affected the financial health of the utilities.

The sources said the industries bought power during off-peak hours at night at comparatively lower prices and returned to the utility grid during peak hours when power through the STOA system cost more. The sources said that the utilities had to back down generators or underdraw from the gird due to this gaming and speculative power purchase by the industrial consumers and this affected its overall functioning.

The sources said under the present system, the industries moved in and out of the utility grid during intra-day operations in selected slots which hit the procurement, planning and system operations of the power utilities.

As of today, there are around 100 consumers which avail themselves of around 450 MW of power through open access on an average of 10 hours a day. This results in a financial loss of more than 300 crore of revenue per year to the utilities.

The sources said the Haryana Power Utilities had decided to grant conditional short-term open access to industrial consumers, under which they would be required to ensure that power was sourced through the STOA for at least 24 hours in a day and shall intimate to the discoms, latest by 10 am on the preceding day. This, the sources said, would help reduce the adverse financial impact on the utilities, besides enabling the power utilities to plan generation and drawals from the grid in advance.